“Kill them all” – Mother Jones

In response to the terrorist attack in London, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) had an extreme proposal: kill anyone suspected of being an Islamic radical.

On his campaign Facebook page, Higgins, a former police officer, published this message: :

The free world…all of Christendom…is at war with Islamic horror. Not one penny of American treasury should be granted to any nation that harbors these heathen animals. No suspected radicalized Islamic should be granted any quarter measure. Their intended entry into the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure must be taken to remove them. Hunt them down, identify them and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and right. Kill them all.

The post is up early Sunday morning. On Saturday night, suspected terrorists killed seven people during an attack on London Bridge. ISIS claimed credit for these killings.

With his statement that Christianity is “at war with Islamic horror”, Higgins embraced a theme of the extreme right: the fight against extremist jihadists is part of a fundamental clash between Christian society and Islam. And in this Facebook post, he called to kill not only terrorists who are guilty of heinous actions, but anyone suspected of such an act. It did not explain how the United States could determine how to identify radicalized Islamists to deny entry to the United States. It was unclear whether his proposal to deny any assistance to any nation that harbors “these heathen animals” would apply to England, France, Indonesia, Spain, and other nations where jihadist cells have committed horrific acts of violence.

Higgins’ office refused to allow a Mother Jones reporter to speak to a congressional spokesman. But in an email, his spokesperson confirmed that the Facebook post was authentic.

At the end of January, Higgins gave a speech of the burning floor attacking Democrats and the “liberal media” for opposing President Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban. He stated that “radical Islamic horror has taken over the world and … incredibly … it has been allowed in our own nation with unbridled contempt.”

Shortly before running for Congress, Higgins resignation from his position as public information officer for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, where he had earned a reputation as the “Cajun John Wayne” for his CrimeStopper videos. Higgins abruptly quit after his boss, the sheriff, ordered him to tone down his unprofessional comments. “I repeatedly told him to stop saying things like, ‘You have no brain cells,’ or making comments that were totally disrespectful and demeaning,” the sheriff said.

“I didn’t quite hold back,” Higgins noted at the time. “Although I love and respect my sheriff, I must resign.”

Update: Higgins campaign spokesman Chris Comeaux said Mother Jones in an email: “Rep. Higgins refers to terrorists. He is in favor of hunting down and killing all terrorists. This is an idea that all of America and Great Britain should be united behind.”