GOP Shows Its True Colors

Good morning! Let's see what's going on in today's House subcommittee hearing on COVID's origins...

Ah, one of the GOP's witnesses, Nicholas Wade, wrote a 2014 book full of outrageous, racist claims.

The book is called A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History. pic.twitter.com/70dQlyzfaX

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) March 8, 2023

He seems nice.

From NYT review of his book:

"Writing about Africans’ economic condition...Mr. Wade wonders whether 'variations in their nature, such as their time preference, work ethic and propensity to violence, have some bearing on the economic decisions they make.'" https://t.co/1qCwkyTGoD

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) March 8, 2023

"His participation hurts the credibility of this hearing," Ruiz says of Wade, who is sitting right in front of him as he says this. pic.twitter.com/hAXWAt0xwS

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) March 8, 2023

Here's more on what happened in this bumpy hearing, where Democrats noted that this GOP witness' writings previously won strong support from... David Duke. https://t.co/lvXLaroFDZ

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) March 8, 2023

But Wade has some expertise, right?

"Mr. Wade, I have read your book. And I’m appalled by it,” [Rep. Kweisi] Mfume said. “You’re not a physician. You not a physician’s assistant. You’re not a scientist. You’ve never done a peer-reviewed paper. And yet, you’ve got an opinion, which is fine, except that it’s steeped in this conspiracy theory that somehow other minorities are so genetically different, that they are culpable in some sort of way and I just, I don’t like that at all. In your book, ‘The Troublesome Inheritance,’ you talk about a number of different things and David Duke talks about it, and says that he really endorses your position on Blacks and Jews.”

Guess who else has an opinion?

Watch: Lauren Boebert objects when Cori Bush says 'white supremacist' at hearing https://t.co/4KYDkZ4uyX

— Raw Story (@RawStory) March 8, 2023

At a House hearing on the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Bush observed that Republicans had invited Center for Industrial Progress President Alex Epstein after he "espoused white supremacist views." 

"Mr. Chairman, I demand the gentlelady's words be taken down," Boebert interrupted. "She just called the witness a white supremacist." 

"No, I referred to the words, not to the person, not to him, the words," Bush pointed out. 

Chairman Pat Fallon (R-TX) ruled the words could not be taken down because they were directed at a witness. 

“The chair cannot take down words that are directed toward a witness only to other members," Fallon said. 

Bush continued, quoting Epstein: "Rather than disavow them, he doubled down on this narrative saying, 'It has nothing to do with skin color. I was arguing that those cultures overall are inferior to Western culture.'" 

"We are not inferior to any culture, speaking as a descendant of one of those cultures," she added.

What’s that old adage about the company you keep? Or is it “birds of a feather…”? And don’t sleep on the fact Ms. Boebert insists none dare call it racism.