One of my favorite podcasts is The Professional Left with Driftglass and Blue Gal and they have a recurring feature called “No fair remembering stuff” where they set the record straight on things Republicans have said and done in the past. I probably like it so much in part because my memory is like a sieve and I’m envious of how they have so much history at their fingertips.
But I have something from this genre to share today. You see, I was reading an article from the Associated Press about how “Republican leaders are warning party members against using overtly racist and sexist attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris.” I thought that was a nice thing to hear and I wanted to know more.
At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., urged lawmakers to stick to criticizing Harris for her role in Biden-Harris administration policies…
…Hudson told members at the Tuesday meeting that the NRCC is focusing on how Harris is even more progressive than Biden and essentially “owns” all the administration’s policies, according to a person familiar with the conversation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
I guess they got concerned with members like Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman popping off that Vice-President Harris is “Intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel. I think she was a DEI hire.”
DEI is an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion, and is not to be confused with REI which is a retail and outdoor recreation services corporation that sells tents, kayaks and hiking boots. For the right, a “DEI hire” is a minority who has been given a job over a more qualified non-minority. So, saying that Harris is a DEI hire is a shriek of white grievance as well as a dismissive insult of Harris’s capabilities. Presumably, she was only picked as President Biden’s running mate because she’s a woman or because she’s non-white or both.
But since this is rightly seen as sexist and racist, the NRCC doesn’t think it’s great political messaging for its more vulnerable members. And I guess that’s a good thing, because we all benefit when there’s less sexism and racism in our politics.
The problem is the NRCC chairman who delivered this message has a bit of history with racism. Back in April 2012, Richard Hudson was running in the primaries for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and he had made an appearance in front of a Tea Party group.
“There’s no question President Obama is hiding something on his citizenship,” Hudson said at the event, according to a video provided to Roll Call. “And if you elect me to Congress to represent you, I’ll introduce legislation that requires any candidate for president or vice president to be certified by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as being a citizen.”
“And whether that’s the birth certificate or whatever it means, that’ll make it really simple from now on, if you want to run for president you need to know that you’re going to have to prove you are a citizen. I think that’s good and simple,” he continued.
Roll Call reached out to Hudson after the received a video of his appearance at the Tea Party event, but Hudson was unrepentant:
Reached today at his campaign office, Hudson stood by his comments.
“I think there’s a lot of people that think that he’s not a citizen. I don’t know,” Hudson said.
When reminded that Obama’s long-form birth certificate has been released and his citizenship is known, Hudson said he hadn’t personally seen the president’s birth certificate.
“In the future,” Hudson said, “let’s just set a standard that if you’re going to run, you have to have your citizenship certified in advance and then you won’t have all this lingering, you know, questions and conspiracy theories and so forth.”
“Personally, it’s not a pressing issue for me,” said Hudson, the former chief of staff to Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas).
Hudson went on to win the primary and the general election, and he’s been serving in Congress ever since. So, his dabbling in Birtherism paid off. He might even owe his seat to his willingness to embrace the most nakedly racist attack Republicans launched against the nation’s first black president.
But now that he’s in charge of the NRCC, he’s responsible for winning not just one red-leaning seat in North Carolina but a majority of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. And he realizes that the toss-up seats that will determine the majority aren’t as receptive to naked sexism and racism. He’s not enlightened on these issues. He’s despicably cynical on these issues, which I know because I can remember at least some stuff.
