African American Congressman Al Green has addressed the recent threats of lynching he has faced since calling for US President Donald Trump’s impeachment over his multiple scandals.
The Democratic representative from Texas took to the House floor on Tuesday to draw attention to the racially charged threats he had received and thank those who had provided him with advice and expressed support.
“For those who may not know, some very ugly things have been said. But they are not in any way comparable to the many kind words that have been expressed,” Green said.
The 69-year-old spent the rest of his floor speech reciting a poem by James Patrick Kinney called “The Cold Within” as a way to “to explain why some of these ugly things are occurring.”
In the poem, six people sitting around a fading fire refuse to help each other because of their personal grudges and prejudices. They all end up freezing to death as a result of their selfishness.
"This poem speaks to the extreme cupidity in our world. Not stupidity. Cupidity," he said. "It speaks the extreme prejudice that some have to endure."
Last week, Green became the first US lawmaker to call for Trump’s impeachment following revelations that the Republican president had pressured former FBI chief James Comey to drop the investigation into General Mike Flynn, who was Trump’s national security adviser and resigned over undisclosed contacts with a Russian diplomat.
The move later prompted a series of threatening messages sent to him, with most of the writers using racial slurs against the African American lawmaker and addressing him with the n-word over his strong stance on Trump’s divisive policies.
Trump sacked Comey earlier this month, citing his handling of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while at the State Department.
The dismissal raised concerns in Washington, DC, with critics accusing Trump of trying to thwart the FBI investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the US 2016 presidential election and his possible collusion with the Kremlin during the election campaign.
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