NYT: Republicans Now Freely Using Racist Tropes

The New York Times reports:

House Republicans released their report on impeachment charges against Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the Cuban-born homeland security secretary who is the first Latino to lead his department. Using unusually loaded language for a committee report, the panel described its action as “deporting Secretary Mayorkas from his position.”

In private, the language was uglier. During a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, Representative Mark E. Green, Republican of Tennessee and the panel’s chairman, referred to Mr. Mayorkas as a “reptile” because of his refusal to resign from his post. A White House official condemned the statement, noting that Mr. Mayorkas is Jewish and that the comment echoed an antisemitic trope.

The racist discourse by Republican members of Congress, both in casual comments and in official statements, has become so commonplace that it now often slips by without any real condemnation from the GOP. Democrats frequently call for apologies but no longer expect any response, and those futile denunciations quickly disappear into a morass of polarized content on social media.

Read the full article. There’s much more. Gift link here.

““The nature of Trumpism is to embolden extremism. Whether it’s badgering an Asian witness about his ethnic loyalties…or describing a Black man as a thug, Republican members of Congress are crossing lines that should never be crossed.” https://t.co/fSQk2Fp0Z9

— Peter Elkind (@peterelkind) February 13, 2024