MAGA Rep. Flees When Confronted About Racist Hakeem Jeffries Comment

Representative Jen Kiggans won’t explain why she agreed with racist comments about House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The Virginia Republican was completely mum Tuesday as MeidasTouch asked several point-blank questions related to her recent endorsement of a radio host saying Jeffries had “cotton-picking hands.”

“Representative, do you have anything more to say after agreeing with racist comments made by a radio host?” asked the reporter.

Silence.

In another exchange, the MeidasTouch reporter asked if Kiggans would resign for agreeing with those comments, and the Republican briskly walked away.

Kiggans has faced immense blowback since she appeared on Richmond-based radio commentator Rich Herrera’s show Monday to discuss the state’s hotly contested congressional maps. The since-deleted interview flew off the rails when Kiggans emphatically concurred with Herrera after he referred to Jeffries as a slave.

“He spent $20 million-plus on our redistricting debacle we had. He now is talking about ... firing our Supreme Court justices,” Herrera said of Jeffries. House Majority Forward, a nonprofit connected to Jeffries, spent roughly $40 million on the redistricting effort.

“If Hakeem Jeffries wants to be involved in Virginia politics, then I suggest he ... leave New York, move down here to Virginia, run for office down here, you can represent us,” Herrera continued. “If not, get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”

“That’s right. Ditto. Yes. Yes, to that,” Kiggans replied.

The term “cotton-picking hands” is heavily rooted in the history of U.S. slavery, literally referring to the Black men, women, and children who were forced to pick cotton.

Kiggans is up for reelection in November. One of her opponents in the race, former Representative Elaine Luria, wrote Monday evening that “the racist comments proudly endorsed today by Jen Kiggans ... are disgusting and beneath any elected official.”

In a statement on X Monday night, Kiggans claimed that she did not agree with the host’s remark and that it was “obvious” she was responding to the larger argument about Jeffries’s involvement in the redistricting effort. She argued that the nationwide political rebuke was “precisely what’s wrong with Democrats.”

“Every lie and distortion is intended to distract from getting their hats handed to them and the Virginia Supreme Court’s clear message: stop trying to rig our elections,” Kiggans wrote. “Democrats are trying to destroy Virginia’s court because they disagree with it. THAT is the real danger to our country.”

Christie Stephenson, a spokesperson for Jeffries, derided Kiggans Tuesday as an extremist who endorses “disgusting, vile and racist language” and “pretends to be a centrist.”

“The voters of Virginia will hold her accountable at the ballot box in November,” Stephenson said in a statement shared on X.

President Donald Trump demanded a congressional aide be fired Wednesday for making Senator Mitch McConnell look “completely out of it” during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. 

The staffer approached McConnell after the Kentucky Republican attempted to preemptively conclude the hearing Tuesday, during which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine testified about the Pentagon’s behemoth budget request and the war in Iran. The staffer explained that some senators still needed to ask questions, and his directions were audible on the microphone.  

“The guy that came up to Mitch McConnell today when McConnell thought the hearing was over, and started speaking in his ear for Mitch to belatedly introduce some other people, all Democrats and, by doing so, made Mitch look foolish and completely out of it, should be immediately fired,” Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday. 

“This was a case where Mitch wasn’t confused, he just didn’t understand why he was being asked to do something when it was too late, and people were wrapping up to leave—They wanted to go home.”

The remaining senators were Democrats Tammy Baldwin and Jeanne Saheen and Republican John Kennedy.

Clearly, someone—likely not Trump—had done some research on who the staffer was: Robert Karem. Although the president called him a “Never Trumper,” it seems Trump nominated Karem to serve as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in 2017. Karem currently serves as majority clerk for the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense.

Now, Trump accused Karem of “grandstanding,” adding: “FIRE THE BUM!” Trump seems to have taken a page out of Elon Musk’s book by targeting specific government workers on whom to unleash his most crazed followers. 

The state Democratic Party favorite won Nebraska’s senatorial primary Tuesday evening—though she has no plans to make it to the general election.

Cindy Burbank actually campaigned on exiting the race. The retired pharmacy technician easily won over the state’s liberal voters Tuesday evening, securing 89.2 percent of the vote and every region of the state sans one rural county in a primary match-up against anti-abortion pastor Bill Forbes.

Forbes was accused of being a covert Republican, “planted” in the Democratic primary by Senator Pete Ricketts in order to give the incumbent an advantage come midterms.

While Burbank earned the state Democratic nomination, she was never the party’s favorite. Instead, knowing they would have little success on the ballot against an incumbent Republican, Democratic party leaders chose an unexpected third option: endorsing Dan Osborn, a mechanic and former labor union leader running as an independent.

“William Forbes is not running to serve Nebraskans. He is running to trick voters,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said in March. “The Nebraska Democratic Party made a deliberate, principled decision not to field a candidate in the U.S. Senate race.”

Ricketts has denied any association with Forbes.

Osborn’s odds in a match-up against Ricketts are surprisingly good, Democrat-aligned polls indicate. The lone question for Democrats heading into Tuesday’s primaries was how the party could avoid a three-way split between Ricketts, Osborn, and a candidate on their own ticket. Enter: Burbank.

“I don’t wanna split the ballot,” Burbank told The New York Times via text message after her win. “I have no expectations of being able to win in November.”

After the race, Burbank told the times that she was “kinda disappointed” by her overwhelming success Tuesday evening. The race was called just six minutes after polls closed, which Burbank joked had taken “all the fun out of it.”

In another message, asked if she hoped Ricketts would also drop out, Burbank wrote: “That would be such sweetness.”

Burbank was initially stripped from the ballot by the GOP secretary of state due to her unorthodox plan, but she sued the state and ultimately had her ballot access restored.

The Republican National Committee announced Tuesday that it has deployed poll watchers and election observers in at least 17 states for the midterm elections.

In a post on X, RNC Chairman Joe Gruters posted an audio clip where he said, “We’ve already deployed field staff and we’ve hired state directors and election integrity directors.”

Gruters didn’t name the states but said that the effort was part of the Republican Party’s plan to hold onto Congress for the 2026 midterm elections.

“We focus on the big picture. We focus on winning. We have a plan. We’re executing the plan,” Gruters said.

Meanwhile, speaking to the press Tuesday, President Trump said he’d “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections,” in response to a question on whether he’d deploy the National Guard or ICE to voting locations in November.

It’s a disturbing thing for Trump to say, just two days after he called for an “Election Integrity Army.” In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed that Republicans had one in 2024 “in every single State to preserve the sanctity of each legal vote” and attacked Democrats for forming their own elections task force led by former Attorney General Eric Holder.

“​​We will be doing the same again in 2026, but it will be much bigger and stronger. All Americans should have their voices be heard by casting a vote. Be assured this Election will be fair! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump posted.

It appears that the RNC has heard Trump loud and clear, and is taking action. It’s on top of everything else the Republican Party is doing to meddle in the midterms and beyond, from mid-decade redistricting that disenfranchises Democrats and Black Americans to spreading election-denial conspiracies from 2020. It has even installed election denialists in local governments and election boards across the country.

Deploying ICE agents or National Guard troops at the polls seems to be a ploy to frighten people of color from voting, and is unprecedented. It appears that the midterms are shaping up to be a tense battle in more ways than one.

Republicans are scrambling to either justify or ignore President Trump’s shocking Tuesday admission that he doesn’t care “even a little bit” about the financial struggles of American citizens.

Journalist Pablo Manríquez asked multiple GOP senators about the president’s comments about 90 minutes after he said them—plenty of time for members of Congress to react.

“What do you think of Donald Trump saying he doesn’t think about the finances or the financial situation of the American people?” Manríquez asked Senator Cynthia Lummis.

“Did he say that? I don’t have a comment about that, mostly because I think he actually does care,” she replied with a laugh, claiming that the president didn’t mean something he doubled down on publicly.

Senator Roger Marshall, also smiling, refused to answer as well, claiming he didn’t know the “context” of the comment. And Senator Susan Collins stated she didn’t see the president’s comment at all.

For the record, Trump’s comments were crystal clear.

“When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?” a reporter asked Trump before he left for China on Tuesday, alluding to the skyrocketing inflation caused by the fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon.

“Not even a little bit,” Trump said. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran is they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me.”