Georgia state Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick faced a wave of ridicule late Thursday after she appeared to confuse President Trump’s “coyotes” remark during the presidential debate with coyotes the animals.
During Thursday’s final debate against Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden in Nashville, Mr. Trump addressed his now-defunct border separation policy, saying “children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they’re brought here and it’s easy to use them to get into our country.”
Ms. Kendrick, a Democrat, appeared unaware that the term “coyote” also means a person who smuggles illegal immigrants across the southern U.S. border.
“Did @realDonaldTrump just say 545 kids they can’t find their parents for came over through ‘cartels and coyotes’?!” the lawmaker tweeted. “How the hell does a coyote bring a whole human across the border?! Lord–—stop talking. #FinalDebate”
Ms. Kendrick’s tweet was heavily ratioed, racking up 43,000 replies compared to about 16,000 retweets and 3,000 likes.
In the words of Biden, c’mon man. ??♂️
You cannot be an elected official and not know what a coyote is. Coyotes are smugglers who often end up pushing the people they smuggle into human trafficking to pay their “bill” off through forced labor or sex.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 23, 2020
And this, ladies and gentleman, is why Georgians should vote Republican. #Clueless
— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) October 23, 2020
Congratulations. You win Dimwit of the Year.
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) October 23, 2020
Who wants to tell her? https://t.co/xtBy5UFOBT
— Senator Melissa Melendez (@senatormelendez) October 23, 2020
This person is an elected government representative ( and a Democrat, of course). This is Hank Johnson “Guam capsizing” level thinking here… https://t.co/MMxPf2jJu8
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) October 23, 2020
Some people theorized that Ms. Kendrick was joking, but none of her follow-up tweets suggest she was.
“People really think I wake up this early in the morning to read their hateful posts LOL. Bye,” she wrote. “I got money to make and people to serve. Have fun arguing with yourselves.”
“Lol. These keyboard bandits sure do talk big behind their keyboards,” she continued. “I want you all you know all you’re doing is getting me MORE followers not less. By all means, keep being annoying.”
“They act like I said you can drink bleach to get rid of Coronavirus,” she added.
