Trone sorry for slur; says he was trying to say ‘bugaboo’
David Trone, a Maryland congressman running for U.S. Senate, apologized for what he called a word slip resulting in him using a racial slur during a congressional budget hearing.
“While attempting to use the word ‘bugaboo’ in a hearing, I used a phrase that is offensive,” the Democrat said in a prepared statement, referencing the hearing Thursday on next year’s budget.
Trone was discussing tax rates during a House Budget Committee meeting when he used an old slur defined by Merriam-Webster as “an insulting and contemptuous term for a Black person.”
“So this Republican jigaboo that it’s the tax rate that’s stopping business investment, it’s just completely faulty by people who have never run a business,” the congressman said.
Present for testimony in the committee meeting was Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda
Young, who is Black.
Trone said in his apology that he meant to say “bugaboo,” which means something, often made up, that causes distress.
Trone said that he didn’t know what the word he used meant. It “has a long, dark, terrible history. It should never be used any time, anywhere, in any conversation,” his statement said.
“I recognize that as a white man, I have privilege,” Trone said in the statement. “And as an elected official,
I have a responsibility for the words I use. Regardless of what I meant to say, I shouldn’t have used that language.”
Trone and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks are among the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for the seat being vacated by the retirement of Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin after this year. If elected, Alsobrooks would be the first Black U.S. senator from Maryland.
The primary is May 14.