An early congratulations to Republican Tim Scott on his re-election victory in the South Carolina U.S. Senate race. Just kidding, but you know it’s true.
Democrats in South Carolina have a mess on their hands in their bid to unseat incumbent Senator Tim Scott. Their candidate, South Carolina State Rep. Krystle Matthews, was recently caught on leaked audio discussing her upbringing in a “mostly white” town and offering her advice on how to treat white constituents.
The end result is pretty ugly and resulted in calls from within Matthews’ own party calling for her to drop out of the race and resign from the South Carolina State House:
South Carolina State Rep. Krystle Matthews (D – Berkeley, Charleston) is back in the spotlight after audio from a conversation between the U.S. Senate candidate and an “undercover journalist” with Project Veritas was leaked on YouTube on Wednesday.
The video features a snippet of the conversation in which Matthews is discussing the racial makeup of her district.
“My district is slightly Republican, and it’s heavily white. I’m not stranger to white people; I’m from a mostly white town.”
Matthews then went on to describe the way, in her opinion, it’s best to treat her constituents and the best way to keep them in line. Here’s the audio so Matthews can finish her comments in her own words:
This isn’t the first time Project Veritas has released audio of Matthews. Back in June, Matthews can be heard on tape talking about shady fundraising techniques including accepting “dope money” donated from drug dealers in her family.
Positioning the previous audio as a right-wing attack, Matthews won the Democratic primary in June but the most recent released audio has her own party now having second thoughts:
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are calling for Matthews to step down from her place in office and to end her run for Senate.
“Ms. Matthews’ words and actions are not reflective of Democrats in S.C., are not reflective of myself or my values, and are not reflective of the progress so many of us in this state work every day to achieve,” wrote Rep. Justin Bamberg (D – Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton) in a statement.
“She should resign from her seat as a Member of the S.C. House and immediately suspend her U.S. Senate run. Washington D.C. does not need more toxicity and neither does South Carolina. Ignorance is not bliss.”
Democratic candidate for South Carolina governor, Joe Cunningham, agreed with Rep. Bamberg’s sentiments.
“There is absolutely no place in our political discourse for the kind of rhetoric I heard from Rep. Matthews in the video in question,” Cunningham said in a statement.
“The Democratic Party cannot and should not tolerate such behavior from our elected officials and candidates and we must be consistent in calling out prejudice and hateful comments wherever it exists.”
Whether Matthews ends up dropping her Senate bid and/or resigning from her State Representative seat remains to be seen as the new audio surfaced just this week.
For what it’s worth, Matthews currently says she has no plans to quit the race or resign despite calls from South Carolina Democrats. Give it a few days and her plans might change.
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