OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A black Texas Republican congressional candidate engaged in a testy exchange on Twitter with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) over last week’s unprecedented leak of a Supreme Court ruling appearing to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
On Twitter, Swalwell claimed in the wake of a leaked Supreme Court ruling that strikes down the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Republican-run states would next move to ban interracial marriages.
“The Republicans won’t stop with banning abortion. They want to ban interracial marriage. Do you want to save that? Well, then you should probably vote,” Swalwell tweeted.
The Republicans won’t stop with banning abortion. They want to ban interracial marriage. Do you want to save that? Well, then you should probably vote. https://t.co/MRytdsjUBP
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) May 3, 2022
“Hi Eric, my name is Wesley Hunt, I’m a Republican nominee in a Congressional District that is 70% white,” the Texas candidate tweeted in response. “I’m black, I’m in an interracial marriage, and my wife and I have two biracial daughters. Republicans are celebrating diversity while white liberals like yourself race-bait.”
Hi Eric, my name is Wesley Hunt, I’m a Republican nominee in a Congressional District that is 70% white. I’m black, I’m in an interracial marriage, and my wife and I have two biracial daughters. Republicans are celebrating diversity while white liberals like yourself race-bait. https://t.co/r7bSNlskVp
— Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) May 3, 2022
“Hey Wesley, your problem isn’t with me. It’s with @SenatorBraun who said states should be able to ban interracial marriages like yours. He’s a senator in YOUR party. Looks like you’re just another Republican who is in denial of what your colleagues say. Party over country, right?” Swalwell responded, pointing a finger at Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.).
Hey Wesley, your problem isn’t with me. It’s with @SenatorBraun who said states should be able to ban interracial marriages like yours. He’s a senator in YOUR party. Looks like you’re just another Republican who is in denial of what your colleagues say. Party over country, right? https://t.co/mfH8tlilvg
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) May 6, 2022
“Eric, here we go again. My problem is with you,” Hunt, a U.S. Army veteran and West Point graduate, fired back.
“You’ve never been black a day in your life, and yet the white ‘intellectual’ Democrat from California is lecturing me on racism. And for the record, don’t lecture me on country over party either, I served in combat, did you?” he added.
Eric, here we go again. My problem is with you. You’ve never been black a day in your life, and yet the white “intellectual” Democrat from California is lecturing me on racism. And for the record, don’t lecture me on country over party either, I served in combat, did you? https://t.co/mHnZOqzLUn
— Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) May 7, 2022
In the leaked ruling, which was written in February by Justice Samuel Alito and is not yet official, the decision specifically addresses only abortion. Also, the ruling does not ban the procedure, but rather leaves the issue up to states.
Another black Republican, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, also blasted Swalwell.
“You are such a fool. What is wrong with you! More gaslighting from the radical left!!” he wrote on Twitter.
You are such a fool. What is wrong with you! More gaslighting from the radical left!! https://t.co/F90nmajjiJ
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) May 3, 2022
The majority opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito and was leaked to Politico.
“The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right,” Politico reported.
Alito’s draft notes: “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. … We, therefore, hold the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.”
The high court is likely to officially announce its ruling in June as the current session ends. It’s not clear at this point if any of the five justices — Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett — will change their opinion.
