Even as the GOP unrolls a million-dollar ad in her favor, Mississippi senator Cindy Hyde-Smith faces yet another batch of scrutiny Thursday, courtesy of newly released video from a November 3 campaign event in Starkville, Mississippi.
The handheld footage, posted to Twitter by the ACLU’s Lamar White, Jr., shows the incumbent lawmaker cheerfully discussing how much she likes voter suppression, as long as it harms liberals—liberal college students in particular. Hyde-Smith doesn’t appear to realize she’s being filmed.
"And then they remind me, that there's a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who that maybe we don't want to vote. Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. And I think that's a great idea."
Note: White, Jr. corrects the location and date of Hyde-Smith’s comments in this follow-up tweet.
Trump pal and Republican darling Hyde-Smith has made headlines recently, and not just for her upcoming runoff against Democrat Mike Espy. Rather, the conservative has faced backlash for her disgusting embrace of public lynchings and subsequent refusal to admit that such attitudes might be problematic. Especially considering that her opponent is a black man, who, predictably, she claims is funded by every “extremist” bogeyman on the left—including fellow black man Senator Cory Booker, of New Jersey.
Wow.
There’s one undeniable truth about the senator who sat, straight-faced, behind Susan Collins as she rambled on endlessly about her inevitable vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice and “Devil’s Triangle” member Brett Kavanaugh: Hyde-Smith says what she means, even if it’s racist as hell, or embracing the trampling of civil rights with a giggle.
Hyde-Smith definitely meant to make that lynching joke, wink wink, and she meant it when she not only admitted that she’s embraced the idea of voter suppression, but expected her constituents to think it’s is a “great idea” too … so long as the liberals are the ones targeted. Especially, one can assume, the sort of liberals who have the gall to be offended by her “public hanging” comments. Let’s revisit those comments she’s standing behind, for those who may have missed it.
With her arm around a cattle rancher, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Republican of Mississippi, drew laughter and applause at a recent campaign event when she gushed about how highly she thought of him: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”
Clearly this is not a person who can be trusted to uphold the Constitution in 2019. It’s time for Mississippi to send Hyde-Pierce packing in the runoff election coming up on November 27. Sign up for the Mike Espy runoff call team here, or the Mike Espy Hustle runoff text team here, and help the Hospitality State slam the door on her for good.
Friday, Nov 16, 2018 · 4:52:42 PM +00:00 · Jessica Sutherland
Mike Espy has responded, and so has Hyde-Smith.
From Espy campaign spokesperson Danny Blanton:
“For a state like Mississippi, where voting rights were obtained through sweat and blood, everyone should appreciate that this is not a laughing matter. Mississippians deserve a senator who represents our best qualities, not a walking stereotype who embarrasses our state.”
Predictably, rather than address the fact that she openly and blatantly advocated for selective voter suppression, Senator Suppression opted to tweet an image chosen to highlight how funny her black friend thinks she is, with a sprinkle of unpunctuated whining about having a sense of humor.
Hyde-Smith gonna Hyde-Smith.