Rep. Clay Higgins, the MAGA congressman from Louisiana, on Thursday walked back his since-deleted social media post saying Haitian migrants are “thugs” who are “eating pets.” But the lawyer representing Haitians victimized by the viral pet-eating conspiracy says he’s not buying it.
“It’s a lame and pathetic excuse for naked racism and xenophobia,” Subodh Chandra told the Daily Beast. Chandra represents the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which has filed citizen criminal charges in Springfield, Ohio and seeks the arrests of Donald Trump and JD Vance.
“It’s bad enough that Higgins is a racist, but he’s also a threatening racist who’s vowing to take illegal action against people who are here legally,” Chandra said.
Higgins sparked an uproar in Congress Wednesday when he tweeted, “These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters … but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP.”
He ended his vitriol by saying, “All these thugs better get their mind right and their a** out of our country before January 20.”
The Louisiana Republican deleted the comment soon after posting it and, while not apologizing, he told reporters on Thursday: “You never want to intentionally hurt someone’s feelings, and that post was intended for Haitian gangs, you understand?” He suggested he didn’t mean to insult “Haiti as a country, not at all.”
The criminal charges filed against Trump and Vance include disrupting public service, making false claims and committing aggravated menacing, among other charges. Chandra, the group’s lawyer, said he plans to add another charge—inducing panic—to the filing by Friday.
The viral claims perpetuated by Trump and Vance sowed chaos in Springfield, Ohio. Schools, businesses, medical centers and City Hall were forced to close amid bomb threats. The state’s Republican governor condemned the claims that Haitian migrants in Springfield were eating pet dogs and cats as “garbage.”
Trump infamously claimed during his debate against Kamala Harris that in Springfield, those Haitians were “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Higgins posted his anti-Haitian tirade on Wednesday in response to the news that the Haitian group represented by Chandra had filed charges against Trump and Vance. He deleted it hours later.
Democrats moved to censure Higgins over the Wednesday post, but Republicans blocked the move on the last day in session until after Election Day.
Higgins was in the Capitol on Thursday serving as a member of the House task force investigating the July assassination attempt against Trump.
