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U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, a far-right wing Republican from Louisiana, is being highly-criticized after viral video appeared to show him physically pushing and removing a young man from a Washington, D.C, press conference hosted by far-right GOP members of Congress Loren Boebert and Paul Gosar. Higgins, who previously has threatened protestors, is now being accused of assault by the man, who could be heard in the clip saying, “you’re hurting me.”
The man Rep. Higgins removed, 25-year old Jake Burdett, posted video of himself asking pointed questions to both Boebert and Gosar, interrupting the small gathering.
“I figured I’d ask them some tough questions,” Burdett told The Daily Beast. “Bird-dog them, whatever you want to call it.”
“Rep. Gosar, can you talk about when you did that rally with the neo-Nazi, Nick Fuentes? Can you talk about when your family did a ad all endorsing your opponent?” Burdett says in the video. “Representative Boebert, can you talk about your divorce? Did it have anything to do with giving food poisoning to Shooter’s Bar and Grill?”
Seconds later, Congressman Higgins apparently grabs Burdett, and tells him, “No. You’re out. You’re out.”
As he grabs him, Burdett says, “Aren’t you a congressperson, touching me?” and then, “Get off me! You’re hurting me!”
The Daily Beast reports, “Burdett wasn’t injured in the incident, he told The Daily Beast. But he felt ‘scared, intimidated, powerless, defenseless.’ He couldn’t exactly push back, he added later in an interview. ‘Like, who do I think the cops are going to crack down on: me, or the congressperson?’”
Video taken by Kristy Fogle, which offers a clear view of Higgins grabbing and pushing Burdett has gone viral with over 9 million views.
@RepClayHiggins pushing an activist for asking tough questions is supposed to be normal? pic.twitter.com/CQx6s3PCQ3
— Kristy Fogle PA-C (@kristyfoglePAC) May 17, 2023
In the background someone can be heard saying, “Get this on video, this is assault.”
Burdett seems to think so too. On social media he asked if any attorneys thought it was, and one called it, “assault, battery, and a potential civil rights violation.”
Burdett also posted videos he apparently recorded. On Twitter he says, “Rep Clay Higgins proceeded to assault/physically remove me from the press conference.”
I am currently being detained by DC Police for asking tough questions to far right extremist Congressmen @RepGosar and @laurenboebert at a press conference. Rep Clay Higgins proceeded to assault/physically remove me from the press conference.For this, the cops detained me,not him pic.twitter.com/iX4yjCGKsZ
— Jake Burdett (@jake_burdett) May 17, 2023
So who is U.S. Congressman Clay Higgins?
Before he was a member of Congress, Higgins was a law enforcement officer, which might explain why he is defending his actions by accusing Burdett of appearing threatening and mentally unstable.
In a statement to KATC, Higgins said, “Activist was a 103M. Threatening. He was escorted out and turned over to Capitol Police. Textbook.”
One website defines 103M as “Disturbance by mental person.”
But Higgins is a U.S. Congressman, not a physician, not a mental health professional, not a law enforcement officer in Washington D.C., and it’s unclear why he would be authorized to diagnose or physically remove someone exercising their First Amendment rights.
A damning September 2020 Buzzfeed News article reveals Congressman Higgins had ties to the Oath Keepers, an anti-government extremist group that just months later would go on to play a role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Oath Keepers founder and leader, Stewart Rhodes, in November of 2022 was convicted of seditious conspiracy, along with eight other members of that group.
“Facebook removed two posts from a Republican member of Congress representing Louisiana,” Buzzfeed News reported in 2020, referring to Higgins, “in which he threatened demonstrators against police violence, suggesting he would shoot and ‘drop any 10 of you where you stand’ if they took to the street armed.”
“If this shows up, we’ll consider the armed presence a real threat,” Higgins wrote on his personal, verified “Captain Clay Higgins” Facebook page, Buzzfeed reported, noting his post included “a picture of an armed Black militia group that has protested the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.”
“We don’t care what color you are. We don’t care if you’re left or right. If you show up like this, if We recognize threat… you won’t walk away.”
In that Facebook post Higgins also wrote, “I wouldn’t even spill my beer. … We are SWAT. Nothing personal. We just eliminate the threat. … That’s not a challenge, fellas. It’s a promise.”
“You’re the ones threatening, if you show yourselves, aggressively natured and armed in my presence,” he also wrote. “We don’t want to see your worthless ass nor do we want to make your Mothers cry.”
Buzzfeed states that “Higgins did not explicitly threaten to shoot protesters, but seemed to make reference to it in his post by writing ‘1,450 fps’ – a reference to the speed of some ammo measured by feet per second.”
This screenshot appears to be the post Facebook deleted.
Clay Higgins, Republican member Of Congress threatened to Kill Armed Demonstrators In A Facebook Post… pic.twitter.com/GWiALI8bAc
— Truth will set you free 🏴☠️ (@juntawflo) September 2, 2020
It was curious for Higgins to threaten violence against the protesters, essentially for being armed, because Louisiana is an open-carry state. In fact, Higgins is so devoted to the Second Amendment, in 2021 he declared his opposition to all gun control laws because murder is in the Bible, while appearing to suggest it is in man’s nature to kill, and that America is a Christian nation.
Meanwhile, Buzzfeed also reported, “On July 29, 2017, Higgins appeared at a DC event organized by Oath Keepers, a group that claims to have tens of thousands of members and has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a radical anti-government group.”
“Higgins is a former law enforcement officer and was a member of a SWAT team. He resigned from the Opelousas Police Department in 2007 after an internal investigation accused him of using unnecessary force on a suspect (he has since denied that was the reason for his resignation),” Buzzfeed adds.
Former FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Bureau’s Counterintelligence Division, Pete Strzok, on Wednesday responded to video of Higgins by saying, “Same guy who quit being a patrol officer before he could be disciplined for using unnecessary force on a subject (‘striking a subject in handcuffs’) and then lying about it.”
Up until recently, Higgins was possibly best known, while in Congress, for shooting a selfie political video inside the Auschwitz gas chamber.
As NCRM previously reported, Higgins last year was one of 33 Republicans sponsoring a federal, vigilante “Don’t Say Gay” bill. He was one of 28 House Republicans who refused to vote for the bipartisan Respect for Child Survivors Act, which would aid victims of child sex abuse and their families.
This year he became one of 26 Republicans on the House Oversight Committee who refused to sign a simple, two-sentence statement denouncing white supremacy.
Just last month Congressman Higgins voiced opposition to the separation of church and state, while attacking liberal Americans and, seemingly the LGBTQ community along with one of the cornerstones of American democracy.
“Over time,” Higgins tweeted, “American communities will build beautiful, church owned public-access libraries. I’m going to help these churches get funding. We will change the whole public library paradigm. The libraries regular Americans recall are gone. They’ve become liberal grooming centers.”
And one month before that, in March, Congressman Higgins promoted the idea of using the power of the federal government to assist and support someone who was under investigation and later charged with 34 felonies.
“It is pretty clearly a wrongful persecution of a free American citizen who happens to be the former president of the United States,” Rep. Higgins told The Daily Beast, referring to Donald Trump. “Because of those circumstances, I think it’s appropriate for Congress to inquire into what drove that decision making process for [Manhattan DA Alvin] Bragg.”
A Change.org petition with over 1000 signatures is asking for Congressman Higgins to be charged with assault.
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