Republicans Vote Against Legislation Supporting Asian Americans
Fortunately, the hateful, racist Republicans did not stop the passing of the Anti-Hate Crime Against Asian Americans legislation from passing- but they sure tried.
Here is more on their pathetic excuses- which includes blaming defunding the police.
Of course, Texas was included in the traitor votes:
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in easily passing a bill aimed at addressing the recent rise in attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. But unlike in the Senate, where Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri cast the only “no” vote, 62 Republicans in the House voted against the legislation, which President Biden signed into law on Thursday.
Introduced by Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act will expedite the review of hate crimes related to the pandemic and will expand efforts to make the reporting of hate crimes more accessible at the local and state levels, including providing online reporting resources that are available in multiple languages.
"The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act is a necessary step to confront the second pandemic of racism and discrimination. We cannot mend what we do not measure," Meng said on the House floor prior to Tuesday’s 364-62 vote.
For Hawley and his colleagues over in the House, the bill was anything but necessary.
"It’s too broad," he said in a statement explaining his vote. "As a former prosecutor, my view is it’s dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents."
An analysis conducted by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that crimes targeting Asian Americans rose by 149 percent in 2020 over the previous year. But Hawley said in a tweet following his vote that the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act would curtail free speech.
“My big problem with Sen. Hirono’s bill ... is that it turns the federal government into the speech police — gives government sweeping authority to decide what counts as offensive speech and then monitor it. Raises big free speech questions,” Hawley wrote.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, echoed Hawley and suggested that the spike in violence against Asian Americans was tied to efforts backed by some Democrats and other progressives to decrease funding for the police.
“This violence, by and large, is happening in Democrat-controlled cities, many of which, interestingly enough, have defunded their police departments,” Jordan said on the House floor.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, summed up the view of many GOP House lawmakers when explaining his decision to join Hawley and vote no on the bill.
"We can't legislate away hate," Roy told his colleagues on the House floor ahead of the vote.
The Texas congressman was joined in voting no by conservative firebrands Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Here are the others:
• Robert Aderholt (Alabama)
• Rick Allen (Georgia)
• Jodey Arrington (Texas)
• Brian Babin (Texas)
• Jim Banks (Indiana)
• Andy Biggs (Arizona)
• Dan Bishop (North Carolina)
• Ted Budd (North Carolina)
• Tim Burchett (Tennessee)
• Kat Cammack (Florida)
• Jerry Carl (Alabama)
• Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina)
• Michael Cloud (Texas)
• Andrew Clyde (Georgia)
• Tom Cole (Oklahoma)
• Warren Davidson (Ohio)
• Byron Donalds (Florida)
• Jeff Duncan (South Carolina)
• Virginia Foxx (North Carolina)
• Louie Gohmert (Texas)
• Bob Good (Virginia)
• Lance Gooden (Texas)
• Paul Gosar (Arizona)
• Mark Green (Tennessee)
• Michael Guest (Mississippi)
• Andy Harris (Maryland)
• Diana Harshbarger (Tennessee)
• Kevin Hern (Oklahoma)
• Yvette Herrell (New Mexico)
• Jody Hice (Georgia)
• Clay Higgins (Louisiana)
• Ronny Jackson (Texas)
• Mike Johnson (Louisiana)
• Trent Kelly (Mississippi)
• Doug LaMalfa (California)
• Barry Loudermilk (Georgia)
• Nancy Mace (South Carolina)
• Tracey Mann (Kansas)
• Thomas Massie (Kentucky)
• Tom McClintock (California)
• Mary Miller (Illinois)
• Alexander Mooney (West Virginia)
• Barry Moore (Alabama)
• Ralph Norman (South Carolina)
• Steven Palazzo (Mississippi)
• Gary Palmer (Alabama)
• Scott Perry (Pennsylvania)
• August Pfluger (Texas)
• Tom Rice (South Carolina)
• John Rose (Tennessee)
• Matthew Rosendale (Montana)
• David Rouzer (North Carolina)
• John Rutherford (Florida)
• W. Gregory Steube (Florida)
• Thomas Tiffany (Wisconsin)
• Randy Weber (Texas)
In all, nearly one-third of the House Republican caucus voted against the measure, which was supported by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise and newly appointed GOP leader Elise Stefanik.
