Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) never went to journalism school, but he — like anyone in the public eye, especially elected officials — has strong ideas about how the profession should be practiced. So when Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) posted a rant about Haitians on social media (later removed, but preserved below), Swalwell called upon the mainstream media to raise the level of its coverage — and to go deeper than just reporting “outrage.”
Democrats were outraged, yes. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) issued a statement calling Higgins’s post “vile, racist and beneath the dignity of the United States House of Representatives.”
But reporting that is not enough, Swalwell says.
“It’s not journalism to post this tweet and report ‘Democrats are outraged’,” Swalwell writes. “Journalism is asking every House Republican if they stand with their racist colleague or will they condemn him. And then reporting what is said. Is the media up for that?”
It’s not journalism to post this tweet and report “Democrats are outraged.” Journalism is asking every House Republican if they stand with their racist colleague or will they condemn him. And then reporting what is said. Is the media up for that? pic.twitter.com/FCWWLYKZh4
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) September 26, 2024
Swalwell’s frustration comes in response to the media reporting so far, which is exemplified by this lede of a story by the media outlet Axios: “Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) is facing bipartisan uproar from colleagues for a social media post disparaging Haitians, with Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) even filing a motion to censure him.”
But Swalwell wants to know what Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks of Higgins’s diatribe, and Mitch McConnell and Matt Gaetz. And JD Vance, who prominently promoted the debunked story of Haitians eating pets. Does Vance, the GOP VP nominee, approve or disavow Higgins’s screed about Haitians?
The same Axios story included a few Republicans disputing Higgins, but not castigating him. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), in a tough race to keep his seat in New York, where established immigrant populations can sway elections, wrote: “The Haitian people are good and honorable people, who contribute greatly to our country … No one should attack or disparage them. Let’s do better,” Rep. Mike Lawler.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Higgins’s fellow Louisiana Republican, said he thinks Higgins “probably regrets” the post, but wouldn’t dwell on it, vowing to “move forward.”
The post is considered so egregious, as Jeffries statement articulates, that Swalwell thinks it deserves a referendum conducted by the media so that Americans know where their lawmakers stand on Higgins. As Swalwell writes, Americans should know of every member of Congress “if they stand with their racist colleague or will they condemn him.”