House Democratic leaders signaled that one of their own members should lose a committee seat after charges she used a racial slur toward a Black activist, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. House Majority Leader Jason Osborne weighed in sharply on the accusations.
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, said there was no excuse for Klein-Knight’s behavior.
the New Hampshire Union Leader
Osborne called the allegations deeply troubling in a statement to the New Hampshire Union Leader: The accusations of blatant and violent racism that have been made against Rep. Klein-Knight are unbelievably appalling.
He said that, given the lawmaker’s record, the conduct described had no place anywhere.
However, given Rep. Klein-Knight’s extreme track record, as made clear by the groups that have already cut ties with her, I am not. Her comments have no place in society.
the New Hampshire Union Leader
As the New Hampshire Union Leader reported, House Democratic Leader Renny Cushing and his deputy David Cote urged Speaker Sherman Packard to remove Rep. Nicole Klein-Knight from the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. In a statement, the two leaders said they were “shocked and deeply disappointed.”
“We are both shocked and deeply disappointed that a legislator would use this kind of inexcusable racist language.”
the New Hampshire Union Leader
A letter from a dozen leaders of the Black, Indigenous, People of Color community said Klein-Knight “crossed a line in aggressively using a word with such a horrible history to intimidate a Black constituent,” the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. The letter said the situation worsened when she defended her use of the word and called security on the same constituent. Klein-Knight could not be reached for comment but defended her actions on social media, framing the dispute as “cancel culture” and disputing the characterization of her conduct.
The complaint that triggered the response came from a coalition of community leaders, who detailed the encounter in a written condemnation. Their letter described the exchange with the activist and the lawmaker’s subsequent conduct.
“Despite not using that hateful word at this young man directly, Rep. Klein-Knight crossed a line in aggressively using a word with such a horrible history to intimidate a Black constituent,” said the letter from a dozen leaders of the Black, Indigenous, People of Color community.
the New Hampshire Union Leader
The dispute stemmed from a testy exchange at a Jan. 21 public hearing, after which advocates said the lawmaker repeatedly used a racial slur toward a Black community organizer. House Democratic leaders responded by asking the speaker to strip her of a committee assignment. The lawmaker could not be reached for comment but defended herself online, casting the criticism as part of a broader “cancel culture” while disputing the account of the encounter. The episode drew a rare public rebuke from leaders in both parties, with Democratic leadership pressing the Republican speaker to act and Osborne adding his own condemnation from across the aisle.
Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader.
