(Headline USA) A number of black House Democrats turned on their colleague and endorsed his Senate primary opponent after he used a racial slur during a committee hearing.
Rep. David Trone, D-Md., who is running to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., used the word “j***boo,” a disparaging term for black people, while speaking on tax policy during a House Budget Committee hearing last week.
Trone, the cofounder of Total Wine & More, appeared to make the Freudian slip while speaking to Shalanda Young, a director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is black.
“So this Republican j***boo that – it’s the tax rate that’s stopping business investment, it’s just completely faulty by people who have never run a business,” he said. “They’ve never been there. They don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.”
Trone later apologized, claiming he meant to say “bugaboo” instead.
“I recognize that as a white man, I have privilege,” he said. “And as an elected official, I have a responsibility for the words I use—especially in the heat of the moment,” he added. “Regardless of what I meant to say, I shouldn’t have used that language.”
But a number of his black colleagues turned on him anyway. Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.;, Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y.; Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio; and Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who are all black, announced on Monday their support for Trone’s opponent, Prince George County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who is black as well.
The Democrats did not mention Trone specifically, focusing only on Alsobrooks. Lee, for example, claimed Alsobrooks was a voice “sorely missing in the Senate.”
Clarke added that “Her vision and integrity make her the best choice to represent Maryland in the Senate.”
But Trone has been under fire before for other inflammatory comments he has made.
He even attracted the attention of law enforcement last year after he allegedly threatened to “f***ing end” and “execute” his colleague Hunter Olsen.
Although Maryland has been a deep blue state historically, the winner of the primary is likely to face popular former Gov. Larry Hogan, who would assume the place of retiring Utah Sen. Mitt Romney as the resident NeverTrump RINO but nonetheless would be a boon for the Senate GOP in its bid to reclaim the majority.
