One congresswoman received boos, the other did not.
U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark took to Twitter on Thursday to highlight the sharp disparity in how congressional colleagues reacted to her and Rep. Cori Bush’s condemnation of white supremacy as they called for President Donald Trump’s impeachment for inciting an insurrection.
“On the House floor, my colleague Cori Bush and I both called out the white supremacy at the root of the attack on our democracy,” Clark said, referencing last week’s ransacking of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump loyalists, some of whom lofted Confederate flags and nooses in an attack that left a police officer and four rioters dead. “She was booed. I was not. The difference is skin color.”
On Wednesday, Bush’s remarks in support of impeaching Trump, whom she blasted as a “white supremacist,” were met with several boos from Republicans.
“If we fail to remove a white supremacist president who incited a white supremacist insurrection, it’s communities like Missouri’s first district that suffer the most,” Bush said.
Bush argued that the 117th Congress had a mandate to “legislate in defense of Black lives,” and that the first step in rooting out white supremacy was “impeaching the white supremacist in chief.”
Later, Bush asked her Twitter followers “What does it mean when they boo the Black congresswoman denouncing white supremacy?”
Bush’s comments were centered on Trump, who even as a lame duck president has commanded overwhelming support from Republicans. But Clark, who also had harsh words for Trump’s “chaotic and divisive tenure in the White House,” made the case Thursday that she was spared boos during the impeachment debate because, unlike Bush, she is white.
Clark, a Massachusetts Democrat and assistant Speaker of the House, detailed how “hateful rioters stormed the citadel of our democracy waving Confederate flags. This must be a turning point for America; a moment that we reject partisan excuses that allow white supremacy to continue terrorizing America, a moment that we come together and demand accountability as one body, as one America, united in our commitment to democracy and justice.”
...Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts on Thursday emphasized the notable disparity in Clark’s and Bush’s treatment by colleagues and praised Clark for calling it out.
Trump’s unprecedented second impeachment trial could begin on Jan. 20, the same day Biden is inaugurated, according to the Associated Press.
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