Rep. Louis Gohmert of Texas
It's a response to the body's vote this week
to remove Confederate statues
A group of Republican House members introduced a
resolution Thursday that would effectively ban the Democratic Party from the
House or force a party name change over past slavery ties.
A group of Republican House members, led by Rep. Louis Gohmert of
Texas, introduced a resolution Thursday that would effectively ban the Democratic Party from the House or force a party name change
over past slavery ties -- a response to the recent efforts to remove tributes
to past members of the Confederacy from the halls of Congress.
It specifically cites the Democratic Party
platform's support for slavery between 1840 and 1856, and other racist
actions by party members through the early-to-mid 1900s, before
calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to "remove any items
that names, symbolizes or mentions any political organization or party that has
ever held a public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy"
from the House and its properties. The resolution also says such a
party "shall either change its name or be barred from participation
in the House of Representatives."
Gohmert, in a statement accompanying the bill, told
Democrats they should rebrand to "avoid triggering" anyone.
"As outlined in the resolution, a great
portion of the history of the Democratic Party is filled with racism and
hatred," Gohmert said. "Since people are demanding
we rid ourselves of the entities, symbols, and reminders of the repugnant
aspects of our past, then the time has come for Democrats to acknowledge their
party’s loathsome and bigoted past, and consider changing their party name to
something that isn’t so blatantly and offensively tied to slavery, Jim Crow,
discrimination, and the Ku Klux Klan."
He added: "To avoid triggering innocent bystanders
by the racist past of the Democratic Party, I would suggest they change
their name. That is the standard to which they are holding everyone else,
so the name change needs to occur."
The resolution's co-sponsors are Reps. Andy Biggs,
R-Ariz., Jody Hice, R-Ga., Randy Weber, R-Texas, and Andy Harris, R-Md. It is
unlikely to pass, but appears to be meant more as a criticism of allegedly
"blatant hypocrisy" around the House's approval of a measure removing Confederate busts in the
Capitol this week. Weber, speaking on the House floor after Gohmert introduced
his resolution, criticized "cancel culture."
"The cancel culture train, H.R. 7573, that passed
yesterday, was wrong on a deep level. I'm not going to get on that cancel culture
train that says we have to do away with any mention or remembrance of everybody
or everything that we don't agree with, or that might have said something we
don't like, didn't like, or that might have stood for something that we don't
stand for," Weber said.
Because the resolution is privileged, it
takes priority over other business on the House floor. And
assuming it isn't dispensed with via voice vote, lawmakers would likely be
forced to go on the record on the resolution, even if that's through a motion
to table it or refer it to a committee.
The legislation to remove statues of Confederates passed
301-113 earlier this week with 72 Republicans and Rep. Justin Amash, L-Mich.,
voting in favor of it.
"Just imagine what it feels like as an African American
to know that my ancestors built the Capitol, but yet there are monuments to the
very people that enslaved my ancestors," Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., said
Wednesday. "...These individuals do not deserve to be honored."
Fox News' Marisa Schultz and Chad Pergram
contributed to this report.
