Much like his spirit animal, Donald Trump, Rep. Clay Higgins first sought reality TV before taking his shtick to Washington.
Opinion Columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports and navigating life in America.
And had “American Justice With Clay Higgins” taken off, maybe the people in Springfield, Ohio, would have one less member of Congress using their small town to drive racists to the polls, as with his since-deleted tweet calling Haitian immigrants “thugs” and “gangsters.”
And be not mistaken, Higgins himself probably would have preferred reality TV fame to a seat in Congress.
In 2015, while a Louisiana police officer, he grabbed some national attention through a series of campy online videos called “Crime Stoppers.” That taste of fame captured his imagination, and by 2016 Higgins had both a nickname — “Cajun John Wayne” — and interest from the executive producer of “Duck Dynasty.”
Captain Higgins also had a lot of work emails that showed him negotiating personal appearance fees and merchandising opportunities during company time. That wasn’t the only reason he was forced to resign. We’ll get to that later. Just know that when he was no longer a police officer, the “Duck Dynasty” opportunity fell apart.
In January 2016, the film “Ride Along 2” came out, with Ice Cube and Kevin Hart playing cops. The next month, Higgins resigned. Then he released “Higgins Ride Along 2” on the Captain Clay Higgins YouTube channel — playing a cop.
In the YouTube video, a camera followed Higgins as he drove a muscle car down the highway. He was wearing a cutoff that ironically showcased a lack of definition. The black patch on the bag facing the camera read “SHERIFF,” though Higgins never was one. Then again, Higgins embraced “Cajun John Wayne,” and he’s not Cajun.
“Is it going to be a television show? I don’t know,” he said, while claiming more than 20 television executives had reached out to him. “I’m not going to be no clown, I can tell you that. It’s going to carry my message that is righteous or it’s not going to exist.”
In May 2016, Higgins had a gun in his holster and wore a shirt with sleeves when he announced he was running for Congress. He wanted to be rich and famous before he wanted to serve in Congress, and this bid for the House was a last-ditch effort to salvage what remained of his 15 minutes of fame. He understands, much like Trump, that the best way to keep people talking about you is to give them something to talk about.
Even if it encourages violence or is racist.
Consider this: This January, Higgins said, “feds are staging a civil war, and Texas should stand their ground” after a Supreme Court ruling sided with the U.S. Constitution. In April, Higgins was heard on a conservative podcast claiming the Trump-inspired Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “was a nefarious agenda to entrap MAGA Americans” by the FBI.
After deleting his recent racist post about the immigrants in Springfield — which began, “Lol. These Haitians are wild,” before descending into much worse — Higgins later said, “You never want to intentionally hurt someone’s feelings.”
Which brings us to his career as an officer and why he was forced to resign.
In one of his “Crime Stoppers” videos, he refers to alleged members of a gang sought by authorities as animals. He describes the investigation as a hunt in which the suspects needed to be trapped. The individuals shown on the screen were predominantly Black and brown. After Higgins resigned, he capitalized on a rumor that the video had forced his resignation — as though he were a victim of “political correctness.” That misconception helped fuel Higgins’s late entry into the field in 2016 and made him a member of Congress.
The truth is the sheriff was going to fire him for the pages and pages of emails’ worth of personal business. Higgins was also accused of attacking an unarmed Black man while an officer.
So, this is not just about feelings being hurt. It’s about the character of an individual who has been given too much power. Republicans placed Higgins on committees regarding civil rights, government accountability and border security — with full knowledge of everything you just read about his background. Rep. Mike Johnson, fellow Louisiana Republican, called Higgins a friend. Some “friend”; Higgins didn’t support Johnson to become House speaker through the first three rounds of voting. In fact John A. Boehner, who had left Congress more than 10 years ago and became a lobbyist for the marijuana industry, received a vote for the speakership before Republicans eventually landed on Johnson. And that was only because Trump told MAGA Republicans they were making the party look bad.
So to cling to his job, Johnson has to pretend Higgins is a good member of Congress, while Higgins is pretending he actually wants to be there.
If only he had gotten that TV show instead.