On this date in 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Clay Higgins, the U.S. House Representative from Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District after an improbable win in the 2016 elections where he finished second in the “jungle primary”, but came from behind to defeat fellow Republican Scott Angelle with 56% of the vote. That won Higgins, a guy nicknamed “the Cajun John Wayne”, the right to go to Washington, D.C. and replace Congressman Charles Boustany, (whose own bid for U.S. Senate failed, due to the unsavory rumors about him soliciting prostitutes that popped up).
Anyway, when we say that Clay Higgins’ victory in the 2016 elections was improbable, we aren’t joking around. Scott Angelle was considered a favorite in that race for months, and as of February of 2016, Higgins was still serving as a sheriff in St. Landry Parish, making appearances on the “Crime Stoppers” show where he would not just ask the community for help in finding felons, but would start berating and mocking them in segments on the show. That got him some notoriety, particularly from the right, because over time, Higgins’ rants started to get… well, a little alarming, and kind of racist. So, of course he had a few guest spots on Fox and Friends in 2015. But as Higgins continued to get more and more over-the-top in his segments on Crime Stoppers, he went viral when he asked for help with “The Gremlins gang”, seventeen individuals who just so happened to be African Americans who he referred to as “heathens”, “thugs” and “animals” while threatening them to turn themselves in with a contingent of officers in SWAT gear and with rifles because, “You will be hunted, you will be tracked. And if you raise your weapon to a man like me, we’ll return fire with superior fire.”
Making things even more troubling was that the seventeen men had their annoyed families come forward to wonder why the hell the Cajun John Wayne was threatening their loved ones, because they weren’t even aware of their family being in any “Gremlins” gang, saying that it may have been referring to an attempt by some of them to start a rap group years earlier. Higgins tried defending the police’s information on the “gang” by saying his department had “read it on the internet”, which sounds a lot like Donald Trump, come to think of it. Oh, he also insisted his video wasn’t racist because each of the officers in it also was standing near an African American community leader (similar to the “we have black friends” defense).
Well, after his boss let Higgins know he’d gone too far, he gave a public resignation, saying he “don’t do well reined in” and that he would “rather die” than sacrifice his principles by… I guess conducting himself professionally? Fox and Friends and other right-wing allies began to rally around poor, poor Clay Higgins for having his free speech quelled (even though the First Amendment doesn’t allow you the right to speak without punishment from your employer on television while representing them). He parlayed the criticism against him into being the victim and started his campaign for Congress instead.
And then, once Clay Higgins advanced to the final two in the GOP Primary, partially due to receiving a large contribution from fellow fascist-lunatic and former Congressman Allen West, the local media started doing its job, and digging at the sudden political star that could end up in Washington, D.C. They noted that back in 2007, Clay Higgins previously had resigned from the Opelousas Police Department to avoid receiving disciplinary measures after he was accused of using excessive force, and giving false statements in the ensuing investigation. But even more damning was when a public records request was made with the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office that discovered Higgins wasn’t just dismissed because of the “Gremlins Gang” video… his superiors had become appalled at how Higgins had begun trying to exploit his appearances on Crime Stoppers as a new means of getting revenue, using government e-mail to sell mugs and t-shirts with his likeness to fans of the show, and book himself on whatever talk shows would have him on to appear… as long as they paid him in cash. The “cash preferred” nature of his bookings was because Higgins had the IRS garnishing money from his wages to pay back taxes and keeping payments off the books would prevent the IRS from getting their hands on it. Higgins even had dreams of appearing on his own reality show called “American Justice” where they would carry out SWAT raids, with him leading the charge, and talking trash to the crooks as they brought them in.
Okay… so that’s a month before the election. There’s Scott Angelle, a moderate Republican, and Clay Higgins, an arguably pretty racist, over-aggressive, fame-seeking, wannabe-fascist nut who seems to want to evade paying taxes. In 2016… that’s the same formula that got Donald Trump elected, and Louisiana’s 3rd followed suit when presented with the same kind of candidate to represent them in the U.S. House of Representatives. Higgins’ website featured issue stances that were a hot bed of crazy, including an argument against all gun control because it didn’t really exist prior to the 1960s (it did, and a need from rifles available to the public tending more towards the semi-automatic and automatic), and referring to the Affordable Care Act as follows:
”2,800 pages of unintelligible psychobabble. It’s the most egregious seizure of power and treasure from the American people in history. It’s the worst idea in an elaborate history of bad ideas. It’s a book of lies, based on lies, sold by liars. Obamacare must be repealed. Period.”
Now, here’s the thing… the “Gremlins gang” video was a pretty clear indicator that Clay Higgins might be a bit of a bigot, and that he would overreact to threats. Well, if anyone had any doubts of if that was a fluke, we can be pretty sure it isn’t now, because after a terror attack in London in June 2017, Clay Higgins responded a day later by calling for Christendom to go to war against “Radical Islam”, and giving the level-headed assessment that we should just “kill them all”.
“The free world… all of Christendom… is at war with Islamic horror. Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter. Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identity them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”
Rep. Higgins made no apologies after people were shocked, and blamed the negativity on his comments on “political correctness”. Because of course he did. He still wasn’t done, though. In 2018, he drew the ire of Jewish groups by filming a political video in the Auschwitz gas chambers without the permission of the museum, using the symbol of the Holocaust as a prop to defend his desire to increase United States military spending. Jewish leaders were, predictably, not pleased. On the upside, for all their long-standing grievances, at least Muslims and Jews can come together and agree, Clay Higgins is an ***hole.
Since Clay Higgins arrived in Congress, he’s also outed himself as a climate change denier. Louisiana’s 3rd District choosing an “outsider” has not served them well, and even outside of his voting record. So far this term, Higgins has yet to learn his lesson about making ridiculous and inappropriate comparisons to World War II (as if the Auschwitz video wasn’t enough of a teaching moment), deciding to announce in the middle of a hearing on immigration where Democrats were grilling Kirjsten Nielsen for her family separation policy by declaring that “We have D-Day every month on our southern border”.
That was slightly a better job than Higgins did than in the Michael Cohen hearing, when he tried to snare Cohen in a “gotcha” moment and only snagged his own ass for about ten minutes straight, obsessively asking Cohen “WHAR BOXES?” in regards to evidence Cohen had returned to him by federal investigators that he brought documents before the House Intelligence Committee for. (And thus making us all ask if Clay Higgins has been placed on the House Intelligence Committee ironically.) Higgins was of course, more apoplectic about the location of these boxes than the fact that what was contained in them detailed a series of financial crimes by Donald Trump, because of course he was.
Which isn’t to say Higgins, the “Cajun John Wayne” has been on top of crimes committed by people within his own party, or even his own orbit. He was apparently unaware that one of his top aides liked to frequent massage parlors where victims of human trafficking were prostituting themselves for sexual favors. No word on if Higgins is planning an episode of Crime Stoppers for the rest of his staff.
Anyway, his voting record is equally as embarrassing thus far in this term of Congress:
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Higgins voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- January 27th, 2019: Clay Higgins voted against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attacking our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
- February 28th, 2019: Clay Higgins votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Higgins votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Clay Higgins is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- June 4th, 2019: Higgins votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Clay Higgins votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- October 17th, 2019: Rep. Higgins is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
- December 3rd, 2019: Clay Higgins is one of 71 Republicans who votes against a resolution to disallow Russia from re-entering the G7 and makes it the G8 until it leaves Ukraine.
- December 18th, 2019: Rep. Higgins ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
- May 15th, 2020: Higgins votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Clay Higgins is currently being a counter-productive imbecile during the Covid-19 pandemic, declaring face masks as “bacteria traps” in a CNN interview on May 28th, and claimed that masks don’t work because “you can smell through them”. Higgins has been calling for the country to “re-open” since March. Unless, of course, you want to protest police violence carried out by brutal, vicious cops like Higgins, in which case he’d like you to disperse and go home.
No racism or hypocrisy there. Nope, none at all.
One Year Ago, July 7th, 2019: Clay Higgins (LA)… 2019 Update
Two Years Ago, July 7th, 2018: Clay Higgins (LA)… 2018 Update
Three Years Ago, July 7th, 2017: Clay Higgins (LA)… Original Profile
Four Years Ago, July 7th, 2016: Christopher Shank (MD)…2016 Update
Five Years Ago, July 7th, 2015: Christopher Shank (MD)… Original Profile