Democrats are demanding an apology after Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) said he wished Democrats would become so rare they had to be hunted “with dogs.”
McMaster made the remark at Saturday’s South Carolina Republican Party Convention, USA Today reported. Democrats claim the remark was not only a threat of violence but also racist. McMaster defended the remark as a harmless joke.
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“I look forward to the day that Democrats are so rare we have to hunt them with dogs,” the South Carolina governor said Saturday.
The comment drew an uproar from Democrats, including a statement from Anderson County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Salley.
“Yesterday, Gov. Henry McMaster threatened me, my family, and thousands of other Anderson County residents who are Democrats when he said he looks forward to the day he can ‘hunt us with dogs,'” Salley said in a statement.
He went so far as to demand that law enforcement get involved if McMaster didn’t apologize, claiming it was a direct incitement to violence.
“If the governor is not willing to apologize and retract this racially tinged dog whistle, Anderson County Democrats join the Charleston County Democratic Party in asking the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division to open an investigation into this threat and incitement of political violence,” Salley said.
The Charleston County Democratic Party backed him up in its own statement, saying McMaster’s remark was only the latest in the normalization of violence from Republican leadership and that law enforcement should launch an investigation.
McMaster has so far stood his ground and shrugged off claims that he was trying to incite political violence.
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“Gov. McMaster has been making this joke at GOP conventions for years, and every day South Carolinians understand that it’s a joke,” McMaster’s communications director, Brandon Charochak, told Greenville News.
“If South Carolina Democrat partisans can no longer bear lighthearted jokes made at their expense, then maybe they should focus their energy on winning and not whining,” he said.
