Watch: Congresswoman Plaskett slams Republicans for blocking censure of Higgins over racist post

“It is easy to demonize a group of people who are not like yourself,” Plaskett told theGrio during a sit-down interview.

April Ryan

Sep 27, 2024

U.S. Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett lambasted Republicans for blocking a measure by the Congressional Black Caucus to censure U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., for his racist and now-deleted tweet disparaging Haitians.

“Like nothing to see here. Move on,” said Plaskett of her Republican colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Following backlash for his post, Higgins attempted to walk back his remarks, where he called Haitians “gangsters” and Haiti the country the “nastiest country in the Western Hemisphere.”

“You never want to intentionally hurt someone’s feelings, and that post was intended for Haitian gangs…,” Higgins said to reporters on Thursday.

Plaskett, a Democrat representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, told theGrio in a recent sit-down interview, “This is all about race and color and fear.” She said she believes the recent attacks on Haitian immigrants are part of the far-right’s “great replacement theory” that for years has been pushed by Republicans, including 2024 presidential and vice presidential nominees Donald Trump and JD Vance.

Plaskett explained that the racist theory is built on the “notion that Jews and others are paying immigrants to come into this country to take over the country and to replace white people, Christians in this country.”

“It is easy to demonize a group of people who are not like yourself,” said Plaskett, co-chair of the Congressional Caribbean Caucus. “Particularly for us, as Black Americans, we need to understand that when they’re coming against Haitians, they’re coming against us and we’re next.”

As for the failed motion to censure Higgins, Plaskett argued that the outcome would have been different “if a Democrat had done something like this.”

“They want to censure Democrats just for where they were born. Just for their religious beliefs,” she argued, in reference to the censure of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Watch the entire interview above.