Texas Rep. Chip Roy used Thursday’s hearing on the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, to glorify lynching and attack China.
“There’s an old saying in Texas about ‘find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree,'” he said. “You know, we take justice very seriously.”
He also used the hearing, scheduled to focus on racist violence and discrimination against Asian Americans, to rant against the Chinese government. “I think the Chinese Communist Party running the country of China, I think they are the bad guys,” he said.
He later defended his comments, telling Mediaite: “Apparently some folks are freaking out that I used an old expression about finding all the rope in Texas and a tall oak tree about carrying out justice against bad guys. I meant it. We need more justice and less thought police. We need to stop evil doers – such as those who carried out the attack in Atlanta this week, or cartels abusing little children, or those who kill our cops on the streets. We should restore order by tamping out evil actors… not turn America into an authoritarian state like the Chinese Communists who seek to destroy us. No apologies.”
