A Project 2025 Adviser Just Defended Slavery in Haiti
A Project 2025 adviser was exposed Thursday in a congressional hearing for defending slavery in Haiti. Mark Krikorian, an adviser for the right-wing manifesto, is the director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a right-wing organization described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group with a history of promoting eugenics. Representative Greg Casar, a progressive Democrat, pointed out that in 2010, Kirkorian wrote an article for the conservative National Review magazine defending French colonization in the country. “I’ll ask you, Mr. Krikorian, and I know you’re a Project 2025 board member, your recent quote from a few years ago, where you said, quote, ‘Haiti is so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough. Is that correct, did you say that?” Casar said to Krikorian. “I’m happy to talk about that all you want,” Krikorian replied. Casar responded by noting Haiti’s history as a French slave plantation until the slaves revolted in 1791, ultimately winning independence in 1804.“The French colonized Haiti so that slaves would work on plantations. The end of colonization in Haiti was so that the people there would no longer be slaves. So what you’re saying, and I read your quote, and anybody watching this online should go read it—what you’re saying is it would have been good if they’d stayed colonized, which means it would’ve been good if they had stayed enslaved by the French,” Casar said.Krikorian stumbled in his response, trying to explain that Haiti wasn’t better off for having gained independence earlier. “They had every right to throw the French out,” Krikorian said. “My point is, they would have been free 30 years later, they would have been in the same situation as—”“You’re saying you wanted 30 more years of slavery in Haiti,” Casar said. This line of questioning from Greg Casar is worth watching. pic.twitter.com/new3YJxzEZ— Acyn (@Acyn) September 19, 2024The hearing from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability was ironically titled “A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures.” Krikorian was ostensibly called as a witness by Republicans to show Democratic failures on immigration. Instead, he was called out for his organization’s history of promoting white supremacists and Holocaust deniers.Republicans have been criticized for the past several weeks for promoting a disproven, racist conspiracy that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are capturing and eating pets, ducks, and geese. As Casar pointed out Thursday, those conspiracy theories have their roots in the writings of extremist right-wing ideologues, whose old racist beliefs are influencing Republican policy today.
A Project 2025 adviser was exposed Thursday in a congressional hearing for defending slavery in Haiti.
Mark Krikorian, an adviser for the right-wing manifesto, is the director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a right-wing organization described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group with a history of promoting eugenics. Representative Greg Casar, a progressive Democrat, pointed out that in 2010, Kirkorian wrote an article for the conservative National Review magazine defending French colonization in the country.
“I’ll ask you, Mr. Krikorian, and I know you’re a Project 2025 board member, your recent quote from a few years ago, where you said, quote, ‘Haiti is so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough. Is that correct, did you say that?” Casar said to Krikorian.
“I’m happy to talk about that all you want,” Krikorian replied. Casar responded by noting Haiti’s history as a French slave plantation until the slaves revolted in 1791, ultimately winning independence in 1804.
“The French colonized Haiti so that slaves would work on plantations. The end of colonization in Haiti was so that the people there would no longer be slaves. So what you’re saying, and I read your quote, and anybody watching this online should go read it—what you’re saying is it would have been good if they’d stayed colonized, which means it would’ve been good if they had stayed enslaved by the French,” Casar said.
Krikorian stumbled in his response, trying to explain that Haiti wasn’t better off for having gained independence earlier.
“They had every right to throw the French out,” Krikorian said. “My point is, they would have been free 30 years later, they would have been in the same situation as—”
“You’re saying you wanted 30 more years of slavery in Haiti,” Casar said.
This line of questioning from Greg Casar is worth watching. pic.twitter.com/new3YJxzEZ— Acyn (@Acyn) September 19, 2024
The hearing from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability was ironically titled “A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures.” Krikorian was ostensibly called as a witness by Republicans to show Democratic failures on immigration. Instead, he was called out for his organization’s history of promoting white supremacists and Holocaust deniers.
Republicans have been criticized for the past several weeks for promoting a disproven, racist conspiracy that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are capturing and eating pets, ducks, and geese. As Casar pointed out Thursday, those conspiracy theories have their roots in the writings of extremist right-wing ideologues, whose old racist beliefs are influencing Republican policy today.
