MSNBC host Joy Reid was stunned by Rep. Eli Crane’s (R-AZ) reference to “colored people” during a debate on the floor of the House of Representatives.
During a debate with former Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) over an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, Crane said that “my amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people or anybody can serve, ok?”
“I’d like to be recognized to have the words ‘colored people’ stricken from the record. I find it offensive and very inappropriate. I am asking for unanimous consent to take down the words of referring to me or any of my colleagues as ‘colored people,’” Beatty said, and the words were stricken after Crane attempted to “amend” them.
On Thursday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, the host played the remarks, then shared a stunned reaction with MSNBC analyst David Jolly, a former Republican:
JOY REID: There’s a big fight on the Republican side about why they don’t like the idea of trying to recruit people of color who disproportionately already serve in the United States military. Here is what one Eli Crane, representative out of Arizona, had to say about that today.REP. CRANE (video clip): Well, Mr. Chairman, though, that was unbelievably inspiring, my amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people
or anybody can serve. Okay. It has nothing to do with color of the skin, any of that stuff.JOY REID: Yeah. So that happened in the year of our Lord 2023. David, your thoughts?DAVID JOLLY: Yeah. Joy And unsettling, I think, for all of us who just heard that Eli Crane, a freshman member of Congress endorsed by Donald Trump, an election denier who tried to get his home state to decertify the Biden election. So you do know where his personal politics are. I think the interesting thing is Congresswoman Beatty from Ohio asked to have those words stricken.JOY REID: She sure did!DAVID JOLLY: Someone who’s worked with the house for about 25 years. I did wonder when was the last time in the congressional record the term colored people actually appears? Because you would hope it would be 70 years ago, 60 years before, a long time ago. Congresswoman Beatty tonight actually succeeded in having those words stricken from the Congressional record. They will not appear, but I wonder if they should, because it’s a time stamp on Eli Crane and today’s Republican Party.JOY REID: That’s an excellent point.
Watch above via MSNBC’s The ReidOut.