WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Arizona Congressman Eli Crane referred to African Americans as "colored people" during floor debate in Washington D.C., on Thursday.
The comment from the freshman congressman from Oro Valley during a debate on a defense authorization bill earned a stern and immediate rebuke from his colleagues on the House floor. Crane was defending an amendment he had added to the bill.
“My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people or anybody can serve,” Crane said. “It has nothing to do with any of that stuff.”
Once Crane finished his remarks, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, the former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, asked for his comments to be immediately stricken from the record. She called Crane's remarks "offensive and very inappropriate."
Crane attempted to amend his remarks to say "people of color," but Beatty refused to accept and asked for the comments to be stricken. They were.
“In a heated floor debate on my amendment that would prohibit discrimination on the color of one’s skin in the Armed Forces, I misspoke,” Crane told The Hill after the debate. “Every one of us is made in the image of God and created equal.”
Crane's comment came during debate over the National Defense Authorization Act, the bill that provides money to the U.S. military. Though it is debated and passed every year, this year's debate was especially contentious as Republicans attached a number of "culture war" amendments to the bill, such as those dealing with abortion, transgender rights and diversity.
Crane's amendment would have banned the Department of Defense from mandating participation in trainings relating to race. Crane, a former Navy SEAL, argued on that floor that his amendment wasn't divisive, though he did say the military had become a "social experiment." He said the military was "never intended to be inclusive" at another time in the debate.