First term Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) referred to Black people as “colored people” Thursday night during a floor debate over an amendment he proposed for the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act, the legislation that authorizes the annual budget for the U.S. military.
““You can keep playing around these games with diversity, equity and inclusion. But there are some real threats out there. And if we keep messing around and we keep lowering our standards, it’s not going to be good,””
Read that. It implies that DEI is “lowering standards” . Allowing Blacks or as he calls them “colored people” to have equal access to military participation is a lowering of standards.
Later, when asked about his remarks, Crane said he “misspoke.”
“Usually, I can keep my racism hidden.”
"Christ, what an asshole." – Lucy van Pelt
I posted this elsewhere not realizing TPM had printed this story
It is nice to see someone other than Gosar making a name for himself from the AZ Republican representative asshole caucus. I am so glad Mr. Crane feels that everyone of us is made in the image of God and created equal. I find that totally reassuring.
Today’s GQP: Just like a visit to grandpa’s house!
What’s infuriating is Crane’s district was redrawn from one that was really competitive and represented by a moderate Dem named Ton O’Halleran to a titled GOP one. This was the most egregious result of an “independent” redistricting commission whose deciding member just happened to throw GOP fundraisers but was not under the literal terms of the statute disqualified for being partisan.the redrawn district still keeps a big lump of liberal voters at its extreme north (Flagstaff and Sedona) and south (parts of Tucson) but has a vast swath of rural GOP country in between.
The smartest thing Crane did in 2022, as much because he had no money as anything else, was not run any ads clarifying his position on anything. He could just rely on the map. Maybe this kind of gaffe will be enough for people to start understanding he’s out of touch with even most Republicans, but given the map and that state of the GOP in Arizona I’m not certain it will flip the results in 24.
“In a heated floor debate on my amendment that would prohibit discrimination on the color of one’s skin in the Armed Forces, I misspoke,” Crane said in a statement.
It feels like there’s an appropriate quote floating around out there from the honorable Maya Angelou, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
…said the college dropout election denier who voted to default on the nation’s debt.
He also literally invoked the “social experiment” language previously used to claim both racial integration and letting women serve in combat roles would harm the military. I didn’t really know much about Crane from his run for Congress other than he was a vet and ran a weird company that was on Shark Tank (he didn’t campaign much in my liberal town that happens to be in his district). But between being a Freedom Caucus member, a hold out on the speakership and his invoking the tired trope that we’ve “lowered the standards” too much he shows me he’s exactly who I thought he was.
Hey, at least he didn’t use the N-word!
It is infuriating. Tom O’Halleran was an effective moderate Rep., taken from us (I’m in this district) by a supposedly independent redistricting body that violated their oath. Prescott isn’t called Trumplandia for nothing, and its inclusion has silenced the voices of reasonable voters in Sedona, Flagstaff and elsewhere.
The lesson is that even ‘independent’ redistricting commissions can be hijacked.
He didn’t have to…
First term Rep. Eli Crane (R-crAZy).
FIFY.
There are still people from my parents generation who say “colored” thinking that’s the proper term (or just so set in their ways they won’t change), my own folks used to say it sometimes before we began correcting them, but this guy is not of really that era as far as I can tell, so f$%k him.
Another racist GOP idiot. It’s like they have a factory producing them 24/7. Also, if we consider hair dye, beard dye, and (yes!) eyebrow dye, Eli is the one who is “colored.”
Oh, oh, oh, ok. I know who he wants to make sure is included in the military. White Nationalist racists.
Maybe he’s racist, maybe not. But if he had said “people of color” instead of “colored people” that would have been just fine. So he could well have misspoken. I wouldn’t send him to the guillotine for this.