The Nebraska Republican Party is calling on the state Senate to expel longtime Sen. Ernie Chambers (I) after he hypothesized about enslaving a female senator and trafficked in baseless, vulgar rumors about her.
“These are disgusting remarks, clearly out of bounds. His misogyny was on full display when he publicly indulged this grossly offensive inference. He owes Senator Slama an apology, as does every Senator who yielded time so he could continue his vile, misogynistic rant against Senator Slama. He should be censured and expelled immediately — there ought to be no place in Nebraska’s legislature for this abhorrent language and mistreatment,” Ryan Hamilton, executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party, said in a statement on Facebook.
Chambers took to the Senate floor on Tuesday and attacked one of his colleagues, 24-year-old Sen. Julie Slama (R), for a flyer that the Nebraska Republican Party ran on her behalf. The flyer cast Slama’s primary opponent, Janet Palmtag, side-by-side with Chambers, and said that Palmtag “sides with Lincoln liberals, atheists, and radical extremists.”
Chambers and others have claimed that the flyer is racist because it features him, a black man, alongside Palmtag, who is white. Notably, Chambers is a common foil used in Nebraska politics, likely because of his long history of controversial remarks, such as a February 2019 instance in which he compared the American flag to the Nazi swastika.
Nebraska Republican Party Chairman Dan Welch has apologized for aspects of the flyer and said it “was not in good taste” and “crossed the line.” He has denied that the flyer is racist, but says that it was wrong to associate Palmtag with atheists as he understands her to be a Christian.
Chambers used the flyer to target Slama, as well as several historical American figures such as founding father Thomas Jefferson and former President Andrew Jackson, in several instances on Monday.
Andrew Jackson is a “lying, sniveling, cowardly, treacherous, rat. You all see him as a hero. I don’t,” Chambers said, speaking on the Senate floor.
He went on to attack Jefferson for his relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings. He compared Jefferson’s treatment of Hemmings to a hypothetical scenario in which Chambers “raped white women” and “enslaved Sen. Slama and used her the way that I had wanted to.”
Chambers continued:
You think Thomas Jefferson was a great man? Do you realize he had a room in Monticello for Sally Hemmings? And he had six children by that woman in the house where his wife lived. One of his descendants said they need to stop deifying Thomas Jefferson and take down every monument and memorial to him. He was a mere man and he was not a good man. How could a man be good if he was a rapist? A child molester? A pedophile? And you all deify him and I’m supposed to go along with it? Then his descendants – I use that term advisedly – like Sen. Slama, Gov. Ricketts, all the Republican Party mucky-mucks, doing what they are doing right now.
Chambers insisted that the attacks on him showed that “white people” are “terrified” of him. In a later statement, he again returned to attacking Slama and trafficking in baseless rumors that she had exchanged “fleshy” favors in order to become a senator.
These lowdown people who I have named – Sen. Slama, [Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts], and all the Republicans – have decided to destroy [Palmtag’s] reputation, destroy her by using my name. That is not what I appreciate and I feel an obligation, which they will take to show how she and I are in league with each other, to lift her up in the minds of the people who live down there with her, who have known her, who have never, to my way of thinking and understanding since we’re playing dirty, said that she was given favors because favors of a fleshy nature were expected in return. Now, I don’t know if Sen. Slama has heard what they are saying about her and why the governor picked a very young person with no life experiences. I didn’t know they traveled together. How would I know that if white people didn’t tell me? They want to play dirty? Well, let’s get dirt out here on everybody.
Slama responded to Chambers’ remarks on Twitter on Monday, saying that Chambers’ comment is “despicable, nauseating, and has no place in the Nebraska Legislature.”
Ricketts, who has endorsed Slama for reelection, appointed Slama to fill the seat of Dan Watermeier in January 2019 after Watermeier stepped down to join the Public Service Commission. Slama worked for Ricketts as his press secretary during his 2018 reelection campaign.
Chambers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.