Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) kicked off Thursday’s hearing on violence and discrimination against Asian Americans by insulting the Chinese Communist Party and exalting lynchings, saying “justice is taken very seriously ”.
The hearing of the House Judicial Committee, which was initially scheduled to address the marked rise in anti-Asian hate and violence crimes in recent months, took on additional urgency after a 21-year-old white man stormed on Tuesday. a murder that left eight dead, including six Asian women.
In his initial statement, Roy acknowledged for the first time that the shootings were a tragedy and that “victims of racial violence and their families deserve justice.” From there, however, the Texas legislature immediately criticized the very nature of the hearing while deploying a certain absolutist logic.
“The case we’re talking about here is the tragedy we just saw happen in Atlanta, Georgia,” Roy said. “I would also suggest that victims of cartels moving illegal aliens deserve justice. South American citizens in South Texas are being absolutely decimated by what happens on the southern border who deserve justice.”
The Conservative congressman continued: “The victims of the riots and looting on the street … last summer deserve justice. We believe in justice.”
And then came an admiring reference to lynchings, a violent, public form of vigilant action that often targeted people of color: “There’s an old saying in Texas about ‘find the whole rope in Texas and get a tall oak.’ . You know, we take justice very seriously. And we should. Round out the bad guys. That’s what we believe. ” (The “old saying” is, in fact, a lyrics to “Beer for My Horses,” a song by Toby Keith).
Roy murmured further: “My concern for this audience is that they seem to want to venture into the watchful eye of rhetoric in a free, free-speech society far removed from the rule of law and eliminating the bad guys.”
While many have expressed growing concern that conservative and former President Donald Trump’s heated rhetoric about the coronavirus – including the “China” virus and the “Kung flu” – has potentially increased. anti-Asian sentiment in the states, Roy decided to launch into a dispute against the Chinese government.
“I think the Chinese Communist Party that runs the Chinese country I think is the bad guys,” Roy exclaimed. “I think they are harming people and I think they are participating in today’s slavery.”
“What they do to undermine our national security and what they do to steal our intellectual property and what they do to shake the whole Pacific, I think is obviously bad and deserves a condemnation,” he continued. “And I think what they did to hide the reality of this virus deserves the same condemnation.”
Later in the hearing, Representative Grace Meng (D-NY), of Taiwanese descent, threw a powerful reproach at Roy, specifically concretizing his attempt to use a hearing on anti-Asian violence to complain about the Chinese government.
“I want to go back to something Mr. Roy said earlier,” one excited Meng stated. “Your president, your party, and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country you want, but you don’t have to do it by looking at the backs of Asian Americans across the country. To our grandparents and our children! ”
Containing tears and a trembling voice, the Democratic legislator added, “This hearing was to address the pain and sorrow of our community and find solutions! We won’t let you get our voice out! “
In response to Meng’s comments and media coverage of his own remarks, Roy later issued a dubious statement: “Apparently some people are freaking out that I used an old expression about finding all the rope in Texas and a tall oak on the doing justice to the bad.I meant that.We need more justice and less policing.We need to stop the bad guys, like the ones who attacked Atlanta this week, or the cartels that mistreat young children or kill those who our police on the street. We should restore order by beating evil actors, not turning America into an authoritarian state like the Chinese communists who seek to destroy us. No apologies. “