Supply: U.S. Senator Deb Fischer
In case there was any confusion concerning the precise intent behind the actions of a newly sworn-in Republican’s husband refusing to shake Kamala Harris’ hand, video footage from earlier inaugurations exhibits the polar reverse conduct displayed towards the vp’s rapid [white male] predecessors.
And to be clear, there may be apparently loads of confusion concerning the incident that went viral on Monday as Harris presided over a joint session of Congress to certify the presidential and congressional election outcomes, together with her personal loss to Donald Trump.
That a lot is clear after a parade of individuals took to social media to defend the overtly unfavorable physique language displayed by Bruce Fisher after his spouse, Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer, was inaugurated.
In case you missed it, Bruce Fischer went viral for all of the mistaken causes after he couldn’t even carry himself to look Harris within the eyes as she prolonged her hand to him following the transient swearing-in ceremony within the U.S. Capitol.
As Harris seems to make small pleasantries with the couple, she is proven talking on to Bruce Fischer, whose face was sternly pointed downward. When Harris prolonged her hand, Bruce Fischer’s facial expressions advised he was agitated, to place it mildly. Harris, ever the skilled, shortly shook off the snub with a figuring out chuckle and moved to pose with the couple and their grownup son for a photograph.
After the video of the incident exploded on social media, folks defending Bruce Fischer for snubbing Harris pointed to his use of a cane, claiming the strolling assist prevented him from shaking Harris’ hand.
“Not weighing in on Bruce Fischer’s intent right here, however what this video with 1.4 million views doesn’t present is that he’s holding a cane with the hand the Vice President tried to shake,” journalist Andrew Wegley posted on X, previously Twitter.
Supply: U.S. Senator Deb Fischer / U.S. Senator Deb Fischer
However as cultural critic and political pundit Reecie Colbert astutely identified, video footage exhibits Bruce Fischer’s “spouse actually takes the Bible from his hand as VP extends her hand and he places his hand in his pocket as an alternative of extending it to VP.”
In different phrases, Bruce Fisher had each alternative to be civil and shake Harris’ hand if for no different cause than to indicate he has respect for the workplace of the vp of america.
Colbert’s publish opened the floodgates for extra receipts on Bruce Fisher to be shared.
As an illustration, Democratic operative Chris D. Jackson shared “the video from six years in the past of Senator Fischer being sworn in by Mike Pence, together with her husband by her aspect. To my expectations, after the oath, her husband gleefully shook Pence’s hand and thanked him for his management. Earlier than they left, he shook his hand once more.”
Jackson added: “Given his refusal to shake Vice President Harris’s hand at this time, I suspected him of being a bigot. Now, I’m sure.”
Later, video footage shared on social media from Sen. Fischer being sworn in by then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2013 confirmed her husband smiling broadly, making eye contact and lengthening his personal hand to be shaken – the polar reverse of the therapy he prolonged to Harris.
As social media influencer Chris Evans famous, prolonged footage from the incident final week confirmed Harris cracking a bit joke to ease the stress – “It’s okay. I gained’t chunk. Don’t fear.” – and invite Bruce Fischer to face nearer to her; an invite he ignored.
Colbert later shared some cultural insights that is likely to be misplaced amongst folks defending Bruce Fischer: “Black lady to Black lady, I acknowledge each single breath, facial features, and bodily response to what Kamala Harris is experiencing.”
Meet Sen. Deb Fischer
For many who are unfamiliar with Fischer and her insurance policies, maybe all one must know is that she rejoiced when Trump’s hand-picked U.S. Supreme Court docket dominated Mr. MAGA may stay on the poll.
“Individuals can rejoice,” Fischer stated in a press release on the time and wrote in a separate op-ed practically a yr in the past that the Biden administration was responsible of associated political “abuses.”
In return for her loyalty, Trump bestowed her with a MAGA-coveted endorsement for reelection, the dirty fruits of which she reaped on Monday when she was sworn in.
The viral second on Capitol Hill got here underneath a large specter of irony. In spite of everything, Democrats have been making an enormous deal out of following the democratic course of and committing to a peaceable switch of energy to a bunch of people – together with and particularly President-elect Donald Trump – who face credible accusations of inciting the deadliest political violence in additional than 100 years; on the fourth anniversary of the Capitol Riots of Jan. 6, 2021, no much less.
That was the determined context by which the MAGA husband of Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer refused to shake the hand of the second-highest-ranking elected official in america who swore in his spouse to the U.S. Senate.
That is America.
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