(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/12/2024) House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) announced Monday he will strip Rep. Josh Schriver (R-Oxford) of his office allotment, reassign his staff and remove him from one committee in response to Schriver’s “sustained campaign of racist rhetoric and hate speech on social media.”
Meanwhile, a source close to the House Republican caucus said Republican Leader Matt Hall (R-Kalamazoo) is also stripping Schriver his access to caucus resources, including policy and communications staff.
The move comes after Schriver reposted on X a post promoting the “great replacement theory,” a conspiracy centered around a supposed concerted effort to diminish white influence across the globe. By highlighting the posts, Schriver was criticized by Democrats, including Tate. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, MDP Chair Lavora Barnes and some Republicans, including Sen. John DaMoose (R-Harbor Springs).
Damoose's wife was an orphan from Vietnam who was adopted into the United States at the end of the war and is “every bit as American as I am.” His grandfather, born one month after his family arrived from the Middle East, is just as American as his grandmother, who was a direct descendant of Daniel Boone.
“The Representative's posts are not worth repeating – you can look them up yourself,” Damoose wrote on Facebook. “But, such ideas truly have no place in our politics and our culture,” he wrote. “By now, our nation should know better. And by now, we Republicans should know that anything other than a swift and strong rebuke of such filth undermines everything we say, everything we are trying to accomplish in terms of rebuilding the ‘shining city on a hill’ to which we point so often.”
Monday, Tate announced that he will withhold the office allotment for Schriver, reassign his staff and remove him from the House Natural Resources, Environment, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee, along with withholding the resources typically made available to a representative by the House Business Office.
House Democratic Spokesperson Amber McCann said Schriver will still be able to access his office “in the sense that he will have a physical space to sit in the HOB (House office building), but since his allotment is withheld, he can make no expenditures, including something as basic as making a copy on a copier.”
“Such resources are provided at the discretion and pleasure of the Speaker,” Tate’s statement read. “Schriver will fulfill his responsibility as a representative through his ability to cast a vote in the House of Representatives.”
“Representative Schriver has a history of promoting debunked theories and dangerous rhetoric that jeopardizes the safety of Michigan residents and contributes to a hostile and uncomfortable environment for others,” Tate added. “The House of Representatives is the people’s house, and all Michiganders should look upon this body and take pride in how we conduct ourselves. It is also a workplace, and I have a responsibility to make sure the employees of the House feel safe and secure.”
Republican Rep. Donni Steele (R-Lake Orion) has also condemned Schriver’s action, but the House Republican caucus has not yet made a public statement on the matter.
Schriver did not return a request for comment on the action taken against him. He made the below post on X later in the day.
I don't think retweeting JackPosobiec was racist.
Especially since I'm not (and never have been) a racist. So I cannot offer a fake political apology for views I don't hold.
I'm a Child of God. I'm a Christian. Humans of all races are united under a universal invitation to…
— Rep. Josh Schriver (@repjoshschriver) February 12, 2024
He followed it up, though, later in the evening with this:
Michigan, I would never replace you ♥️
Whitmer calls for our lovely Michigan residents to be swiftly replaced by foreign nationals… https://t.co/a6nEzITQMJ
— Rep. Josh Schriver (@repjoshschriver) February 13, 2024
