‘Public hanging’ remark draws fury
JACKSON: A newly published video shows a white Republican US senator in Mississippi praising someone by saying: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row”.
Sen Cindy Hyde-Smith, who faces a black Democratic challenger in a Nov 27 runoff, said on Sunday that her Nov 2 remark was “exaggerated expression of regard” for someone who invited her to speak and “any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous”.
Mississippi has a history of racially motivated lynchings of black people. The NAACP website says that between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the United States, and nearly 73% of the victims were black. It says Mississippi had 581 during that time, the highest number of any state.
Sen Hyde-Smith is challenged by former congressman and former US agriculture secretary Mike Espy.
“Cindy Hyde-Smith’s comments are reprehensible,” Mr Espy’s campaign spokesman Danny Blanton said in a statement on Sunday. “They have no place in our political discourse, in Mississippi, or our country. We need leaders, not dividers, and her words show that she lacks the understanding and judgment to represent the people of our state.”
The video was shot in Tupelo, in front of a statue of Elvis Presley, who was born in the city in northeastern Mississippi. It shows a small group of white people clapping politely for Sen Hyde-Smith after a cattle rancher introduced her.
“I referred to accepting an invitation to a speaking engagement,” said Sen HydeSmith, who is also a cattle rancher, in a statement on Sunday. “In referencing the one who invited me, I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous.”
Sen Hyde-Smith and Mr Espy each received about 41% of the vote in a fourperson race on Nov 6 to advance to the runoff. The winner gets the final two years of a term started by longtime Republican Sen Thad Cochran.
Republican Gov Phil Bryant appointed Sen Hyde-Smith to temporarily succeed Mr Cochran, who retired amid health concerns in April. She will serve until the special election is resolved.
Mr Espy in 1986 became the first African-American since Reconstruction to win a US House seat in Mississippi, and if he defeats Sen Hyde-Smith, he would be the first African-American since Reconstruction to represent the state in the US Senate.
Sen Hyde-Smith, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, is the first woman to represent Mississippi in either chamber of Congress, and after being appointed is trying to become the first woman elected to the US Senate from the state.
Lamar White Jr, publisher of a left-leaning Louisiana news site called The Bayou Brief, posted the video on Sunday on social media. Mr White said he received the video late on Saturday from “a very reliable, trusted source”, but he would not reveal the person’s name. He said that source received it from the person who shot the video.
“There’s no excuse to say what she said,” he said of Sen Hyde-Smith.
The national NAACP president Derrick Johnson, who is from Mississippi, said Sen Hyde-Smith’s comment shows a lack of judgment.
“Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s shameful remarks prove once again how Mr Trump has created a social and political climate that normalises hateful and racist rhetoric,” Mr Johnson said in a statement. “Sen HydeSmith’s decision to joke about ‘hanging’, in a state known for its violent and terroristic history toward African Americans is sick. To envision this brutal and degenerate type of frame during a time when Black people, Jewish People and immigrants are still being targeted for violence by White nationalists and racists is hateful and hurtful.’’
A Republican activist who initially supported another candidate in the special US Senate election said he will vote for Sen Hyde-Smith in the runoff, even though he considers her a weak candidate.
“That comment about ‘a public hanging’ is much ado about nothing,” said Scott Brewster of Brandon, who is white. “She’s not very smart and made a tone deaf comment. It doesn’t make her a racist.”