U.S. House Rep. Cori Bush pulled no punches during a congressional hearing where she called Donald Trump the “former white supremacist-in-chief.”
The Missouri Democrat made the comments during a House Judiciary Committee hearing where Democrats and Republicans took testimony on former Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, which recommended no criminal charges for Biden following a federal investigation.
House Republicans allege partiality was exercised toward Biden. Meanwhile, Trump faces several charges for allegedly mishandling classified documents at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida. Democrats defended the president, noting that, unlike Trump, Biden cooperated with federal investigators.
Hur defended the findings in his report and stated that “partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work.” He also said he did not “exonerate” Biden despite the decision not to charge the president.
Bush began trending on the social platform X for her remarks during the hearing.
“As my colleagues have pointed out, President Biden fully complied with the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Hur, who did not find evidence sufficient to warrant criminal charges,” Bush said. “Despite this outcome, Republicans have used the special counsel’s report to further their longstanding efforts to re-elect the former white supremacist-in-chief, Donald Trump who faces 40 criminal charges related to the mishandling of classified documents, including obstruction of justice.”
Many X users were swift to condemn Bush and allege that she used a “racist slur” against Trump, while others voiced their agreement with her comments.
A white supremacist is defined as a person who believes that white people are inherently superior to other races and should control society, according to Merriam-Webster. The term is designated to a group of people who share this ideology, unlike actual racist slurs that are used to dehumanize racial groups.
While Trump has purported in the past that he’s the “least racist person that you’ve encountered,” his history of making racist and bigoted remarks and the latitude he’s given white supremacists in the past paint a different picture.
Trump has called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “criminals.” He once proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States. He even called COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” and “kung flu.”
Following the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists and counterprotesters clashed, Trump famously said that “both sides” were to blame for the violence and that there were “some very fine people” among the white supremacist protesters.
This isn’t the first time Bush has called Trump a white supremacist. She labeled the president a white supremacist during a hearing that followed the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, in which lawmakers were debating whether to impeach Trump a second time.
“The first step in that process is to root out white supremacy, starting with impeaching the white supremacist-in-chief,” Bush said. “If we fail to remove the white supremacist president who incited a white supremacy insurrection, it’s communities like Missouri’s 1st District that suffer the most.”
Bush is notably part of a group of lawmakers called “The Squad,” which includes House representatives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. These women have become well-known in Congress for their bold criticisms of Republicans and are often targets for conservatives who challenge their views on policy.
