Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's racism became a focal point after she evoked Mississippi's horrendous history of lynchings, calling them "public hangings" and used it as a gracious compliment to bestow on one of her supporters while she is running against an African-American, Mike Espy.
As The Guardian notes, "According to the Equal Justice Initiative, 654 lynchings of black people were carried out within its borders, dramatically more than any other state."
Espy became the first African American in Mississippi to win a seat in the US House of Representatives since Reconstruction.
And she's in a heated battle with him over Thad Cochran's vacated seat that will be decided in a runoff on Nov 27th.
This video went viral immediately.
“If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,” Cindy Hyde-Smith is heard saying in the video, praising Colin Hutchinson, a cattle rancher that supports her.
Why any person in modern history would utter those words is beyond comprehension. This is Trump's America, where white nationalism is exalted.
And her reason for saying those despicable words is just as insulting as you might imagine.
Hyde-Smith said. "In referencing the one who invited me, I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous."
Even Kellyanne Conway would have a hard time using her "alternative facts" in to make this excuse fly. Smith's definition of an "exaggerated expression of regard," is straight up racism.
