US Representative Clay Higgins deletes tweets in which he calls Haitians “savages” and “criminals”

Rep. Clay Higgins on Wednesday deleted a social media post in which he called Haitian immigrants “thugs” and “slapstick gangsters” after many of his congressional colleagues quickly condemned it.

The post, which Louisiana Republican Higgins deleted from Platform X within hours, was in response to news that a Haitian nonprofit group was seeking to file charges against former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance over their repeated unsubstantiated claims that migrants eat pets in Springfield, Ohio. The claim, which the Republican presidential candidate and his running mate have repeatedly made without evidence, has led to bomb threats and school evacuations in the small town of about 60,000 residents.

In response to Higgins' post, which included racist slurs about Haitians and called on them to “get their ass out of our country,” several House lawmakers confronted him on Wednesday, POLITICO reported. The lawmakers also called for the House Ethics Committee to look into the matter and demanded that Higgins be formally reprimanded.