In bipartisan vote, N.H. lawmaker censured for inflammatory taunts invoking deportation and the Holocaust
Corcoran, who has a history of peddling racist and anti-immigrant tropes online, was censured for two posts in particular. In one, he called on the White House to deport a fellow lawmaker who is a naturalized US citizen. In another, he invoked the language of genocide to ridicule a Jewish colleague’s karaoke invitation, writing that “a final solution” is needed for “theater kids in politics.”
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Corcoran has said he didn’t know that the House member whose invitation he mocked, Democratic Representative Jessica Grill of Manchester, was Jewish. He has characterized his comment as a “joke” that’s now being “recast as hate speech.” On Thursday, he told colleagues he has no reason to apologize.
“It is the theater kids in this chamber who should apologize to me and to the people of New Hampshire for their failed policies and for their drama club antics,” he said.
The Republican-controlled House, which has 400 seats, voted 288-54 in favor of the censure recommendation, then Deputy Speaker Steven D. Smith brought Corcoran to the front of the chamber and formally advised him of the admonishment.
Grill, who had previously recommended that Corcoran be expelled from the House, said she is “very pleased” with the outcome of Thursday’s vote, and proud to see her colleagues join in condemning Corcoran’s misbehavior.
“I am glad to put this incident behind us and get back to doing the important work we were elected to do,” she added.
Those who have spoken in Corcoran’s defense have argued the Legislature should not try to limit an elected official’s speech.
Republican Representative Donald McFarlane of Orange, N.H., said people often say “ugly things” in politics, and it’s not clear what standard is being applied in Corcoran’s case.
“The whole point of free political speech is that it protects the speech which shocks, which angers, unsettles, irritates, and yes offends,” he said. “The speech everyone already approves of requires no protection at all.”
The chamber’s Democratic minority leader, Representative Alexis Simpson of Exeter, said this censure doesn’t violate Corcoran’s freedom of speech. He still has the right to say “hateful things” online, she said.
“No one is arresting him for his posts,” she said. “But the House has freedom of speech, too. We have the right to condemn Representative Corcoran’s actions toward other members, and to say that invoking genocide, hatred, and discrimination has no place in our public square.”
House Speaker Sherman Packard, a Republican, has also criticized Corcoran’s commentary as “deeply inappropriate” and inconsistent with the expectations of state representatives.
Grill said the bipartisan “karaoke caucus” events that sparked Corcoran’s abhorrent response will continue, as scheduled, on Thursday night.
Steven Porter can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @reporterporter.
