Despite losing to secure the majority in six rounds of votes for his bid to become the Speaker of the House, GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy was nominated again for the seventh time on Thursday by Rep. John James. 

The Michigan freshman congressman nominated McCarthy to start the day. James said McCarthy would change the direction of the nation and argued that the GOP needs to resolve the impasse to hand him the Speaker’s job. People “want Republicans to lead,” James said.

He also made references to racism in America, which rubbed people on social media the wrong way and he received quite some backlash on Twitter. 

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“Rep. John James (MI-10) is giving the nominating speech for McCarthy. His speech is focused heavily on the history of racism in America, which is ironic given how Republicans have sought to remove the history of American racism from textbooks and classrooms,” one of the Twitter users said, while another noted, “There are 5 Black Republicans in Congress now, including this man, John James. We’re going to hear *a lot* about Frederick Douglas, y’all… less about WEB Dubois, I imagine.”

One more stated, “As Rep John James talks about slavery, Jim Crow, and his family’s ancestral history, it’s rather ironic he is a member of a party that is trying to end the teaching of that part of American history in schools thereby empowering the very white supremacy his family suffered under.”

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A Twitter user noted, “So… Black Republicans like John James of Michigan can talk about America’s history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination on the House floor to get Kevin McCarthy elected as Speaker of the House, but if I do it in my classroom it’s ‘woke CRT indoctrination?’ O ok.”

Another user commented, “Rep-elect John James, R-Mich, starts his McCarthy nomination speech by talking about Jim Crow and systemic racism, things that his own party is trying to ban from being taught in classrooms around the country.”