Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, on Thursday night rebuked Rep. Chip Roy for his comments during a congressional hearing on the surge in violence against Asian Americans.
Speaking on CNN, Mr. Hogan said Mr. Roy, Texas Republican, was “embarrassing” the GOP with those comments.
“Quite frankly it’s shameful and disgusting and disgraceful and that congressman — I don’t know him — but he should ashamed of himself for making comments like that in the middle of a crisis like this,” said Mr. Hogan, whose wife is Korean American and has faced discrimination.
“I mean, you can have positions against the Chinese Communist Party and maybe our trade policies with China and that’s very legitimate, but to try to say things like that equating this violent racism, too — that’s just, that’s just unacceptable, and embarrassing quite frankly,” the governor continued.
Mr. Hogan’s criticism came in response to Mr. Roy’s comments during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on violence targeting Asian Americans.
During the hearing, Mr. Roy lambasted Democrats, accusing them of seeking to criminalize free speech because they blamed former President Trump and others using terms like “Chinese virus” and “Kung flu” to refer to the coronavirus. Democrats said such rhetoric has led to the surge in attacks on Asian Americans.
“We shouldn’t be worried about having a committee of members of Congress policing our rhetoric, because some evildoers go engage in some evil activity as occurred in Atlanta, Georgia,” Mr. Roy said.
A spokesperson for Mr. Roy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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