Black Republican blasts Democrats for claiming the GOP is pushing ‘white nationalism’

Lawmakers clashed as Democrats again accused Republicans of being racist for focusing committee hearings on the southern border crisis.

The 118th Congressional Oversight Committee’s second hearing on Tuesday focused on handling migration at the southern border: It was the second hearing to focus on the immigration crisis, just a week after the Judiciary’s hearing on the same theme.

Chairman James Comer defended the hearing, noting that the job of the powerful Oversight Committee is to make sure that problems are properly addressed by Congress, and that Tuesday’s hearing is the first time the panel has heard from government workers responsible for secure the border.

Republicans said that while Biden “will not speak about the crisis at our southern border” during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, the Oversight Committee will address it at its hearing earlier in the day.

Democrats, however, accused the GOP-led hearing of “amplifying white nationalism.”

Chairman James Comer called attention to the Democrats’ impeachment tweet at the beginning of the hearing. He held up a printout of the post.

“Good morning and good luck to all except the members of the GOP Oversight who are using today’s hearing to amplify white nationalist conspiracy theories instead of a comprehensive solution to protect our borders and strengthen our security system.” immigration,” Oversight Democrats tweeted Tuesday.

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida interrupted the normal hearing procedure because he wanted to respond after Rep. Comer read the tweet aloud, criticizing him for being “out of propriety” by congressional rules.

“I’m going to cut to the chase,” said Donalds, who is black. “To my colleagues across the aisle who want to claim that we are using this hearing for white nationalism, I will not.”

“So if you feel that strongly, come walk to this side of the room and let’s talk about it face to face,” he urged. But he leaves that kind of nonsense for someone else. Don’t bring that here today. This is serious.

The tug of war came after Democrats on the Judiciary Committee made the same claims of racism during their first hearing of the new Congress on Wednesday.

“The first hearing will showcase the racist tendencies of the MAGA extreme Republican wing of the party that seeks to close the border to refugees from places like Cuba and Venezuela,” judicial ranking member Nadler said in his opening remarks last week.

“It almost makes me miss his usual obsession with conspiracy theories and the FBI,” he joked.

“I suspect this hearing is also an attempt to distract from the fact that the Republicans have failed to pass any significant legislation in their first month in majority.”

Ranking Member Jamie Raskin accused the Republican Party of not engaging in any real oversight of the border crisis.

Chairman James Comer harshly rebuked this claim, noting that Tuesday’s hearing is “the first time since Joe Biden has been president that someone representing the border has been asked to appear before this committee.”

Freshman Republican Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas rejected this claim.

The black lawmaker said Democrats too often use racism as a “scapegoat.”

“I’ve been black for a long time, sir, so I understand,” Hunt said during cross-examination by El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego after he suggested that the term “invasion” is racist.

“I’ve been a minority in this country for a long time,” Hunt said. “But this isn’t really about race, it’s really a public safety issue.”

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is packed with high-profile lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic sides of the aisle.

This includes progressive freshman Rep. Maxwell Frost, who had a cordial conversation with Chairman Comer before the hearing, and several hard-line immigration legislators including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Andy Biggs from Arizona.

Comer echoed the message of several other Republicans in Congress, stating that Biden and Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas have sent the message that “our borders are open.”

Democratic Ranking Member Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who donned a bandana due to hair loss from cancer treatment, criticized Republicans for not holding hearings on the humanitarian crisis at the border when former President Donald Trump was in office. charge, and when reports surfaced of children and their parents being separated after crossing illegally.

“Instead of working with the Democrats on these efforts, the MAGA forces in the Republican Party have chosen to abandon the strong pro-immigration stance of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan and instead spread fear of an ‘invasion.’ foreign, dangerous paranoia about racism and anti-Semitic mythology of the Great Replacement and misinformation about fentanyl, the vast majority of which is brought into our country by American smugglers working for international drug cartels,’ Raskin alleged .

‘This hearing will become an opportunity to seek a bipartisan deal rather than another missed opportunity for committee Republicans to join us in making meaningful oversight toward comprehensive reform, turning this into more bad political theater. it will only extend the long pattern of failure on this issue,’ he continued in his opening remarks.

Figures released for December show that the number of encounters on the southern border continues to rise, reaching a new all-time high in a single month of 251,487.

“For years, Republicans on this committee have refused to oversee President Trump’s cruel and disastrous border policies. They were silent in 2019 when the US Customs and Border Protection declared a humanitarian crisis at the border.”

Raskin said that Republicans are not really looking to participate in the actual purpose of the Oversight panel.

But Comer denounced this classification.

‘Lack of Republican oversight?’ questioned the president. “I want to remind everyone that this is the first time since Joe Biden has been president that someone representing the border has been asked to come before this committee, the first time.”

“This crisis has gotten worse every day for two years, this is the first time,” he added.

The two witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing are Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Floria Chavez and Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin.