Almost every single House Republican voted against bill to condemn racism

Nearly every single House Republican on Thursday voted against a resolution to condemn the anti-Asian sentiment that’s spread across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The resolution still passed, with 229 Democrats and just 14 House Republicans voting for it, according to CSPAN’s Craig Caplan.

However, 164 House Republicans voted against the resolution, which introduced by Asian American Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY).

Anti-Asian hate crimes have skyrocketed during the coronavirus, with racist people directing their anger about the pandemic at people of Asian descent. More than 2,100 hate incidents against Asian Americans were reported between March and June, according to a report from CBS News.

Meng tweeted Thursday morning before the vote that passing her bill would send “unified message that such bigotry, hatred & xenophobia will not be tolerated.”

The resolution “calls on all public officials to condemn and denounce anti-Asian sentiment, racism, discrimination, and religious intolerance related to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019), and to call on federal law enforcement officials, working with state and local officials, to take specified steps,” according to a summary of the bill.

Yet almost every Republican still voted against the resolution.

Donald Trump and Republicans have helped stoke that violence by using racist terms for the virus — l ike “Kung Flu,” “China virus,” and “Wuhan virus” — ignoring warnings from the World Health Organization against using geographic locations to name viruses due to the unfair stigma it places on people of certain races and ethnicities.

Trump has even defended his use of racist terms for the virus, telling radio host Giraldo Rivera in August: “I do too have great Asian support. And they understand exactly what it is that we’re doing and saying. And they understand how China has hurt our country, you know, very much.”

Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), the first Chinese American woman ever elected to Congress, condemned her GOP colleagues for voting against the resolution.

“Not only have Republicans refused to drop their racist language, they have refused to acknowledge the problem at all,” Chu said in a statement. “I was so dismayed to see my Republican colleagues, one after the other, come to the floor today and tell the Asian American community that their suffering does not matter, and that they are indifferent to the consequences of the hate they are spreading.”

Chu said Republicans voted against the resolution because they didn’t want to upset Trump.

“It is more important to Republicans that they spare Donald Trump any responsibility for the spread of the coronavirus than it is that they spare even one family from the pain of being victims of a hate crime,” Chu said.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.