A Wisconsin candidate for attorney general who said he would have defended a ban on interracial marriage in the 1950s, now says that the hypothetical was “absurd” and he should have declined to respond to the question.
The comments by Republican Brad Schimel, came about a week after he said that if he were attorney general in the state in a state that had an active interracial marriage ban, he would have defended it.
“Now that’s an absurd hypothetical because the U.S. Supreme Court resolved that issue 60 years ago, before I was born. And Wisconsin, actually, probably, was never a state that had that law. So the hypothetical was absurd,” Schimel said Thursday in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board. “Frankly, when I was asked to answer that question previously I should’ve declined to answer that question previously I should’ve declined to answer because it’s senseless.”
Democrats were quick to pounce on Schimel’s initial comments and the Republican candidate released a statement trying to pivot to his Democratic opponent, Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ.
“Love and the law are colorblind, as they should be,” Schimel said in a statement according to the Journal-Sentinel. “Many shameful, racist laws were changed over the course of time in this country by legislators, the courts and the people’s direct votes. But if Susan Happ wants to make up new laws, or change old ones, she’s running for the wrong job.”
