As the Senate ramped up its vote-a-rama and battled — to eventually pass — President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic aid plan, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Friday released a five-minute video of himself reading a Dr. Seuss book in an apparent attempt at outrage over cancel culture.
“I still like Dr. Seuss, so I decided to read Green Eggs and Ham,” McCarthy wrote in a Twitter post featuring the video.
But Dr. Seuss wasn’t “cancelled.”
The video came after Dr. Seuss Enterprises said in a statement Tuesday that it had decided last year to end publication and licensing of six books by Theodor Seuss Geisel that contained racist imagery in an effort to advances its “mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship.”
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” the company added, noting that the move to discontinue six of the books followed review with a panel of experts.
I still like Dr. Seuss, so I decided to read Green Eggs and Ham.
RT if you still like him too! pic.twitter.com/2pbRbSiJD6
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) March 6, 2021
GOP lawmakers and conservative media networks have since directed their ire at Democrats, suggesting that their congressional counterparts were to blame for the private company’s move to halt publication of some of its books. Earlier in the week Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) falsely suggested Biden had banned the books.
The Republican outrage seems to stem from its broader effort to attribute “cancel culture” to Democrats, even as prominent members of the Republican Party have sought to “cancel” their own colleagues for voicing opposition to former President Donald Trump in the wake of the role the ex-president played in fomenting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
McCarthy’s reading of “Green Eggs and Ham” was ridiculed in tweets slamming the House’s top Republican leader not only for his misguided attention as his colleagues in Congress battled to pass a relief bill to lend support to millions of financially-strapped American families and businesses, but also for his selection of a book that was not among the pulled titles.
The notion that this is "censorship" is flat wrong. Each of these incidents becomes an opportunity for the right to play victim. It's old. It's pathetic.
— Jennifer 'pro-reality' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) March 6, 2021
One of the weirdest parts of this culture war is that the self-styled “warriors” aren’t willing to stand by the empirically racist images they’re supposedly defending. Green Eggs and Ham is not one of the books the @DrSeuss Foundation has decided to stop publishing. https://t.co/OMXqHz11Vf
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 6, 2021
8/9
They just decided those stories and pictures inspired,
Ideas wrong and outdated, that should be retired.Dr. Seuss wasn’t cancelled and suffered no such vexation.
The brand has just changed to preserve its reputation.#velshi— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) March 6, 2021
No one is upset about Green Eggs and Ham, you disingenuous dipshit.
Here’s one of the books the Seuss estate decided not to publish anymore.
If you so desperately need to read about Asians “with their eyes all a slant,” buy the rights and print copies yourself. pic.twitter.com/WLeOISgwB1
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 6, 2021
The Dr Seuss foundation appreciates all your false outrage about a decision they made on their own for all the book sales
— TWalsh (@hogan_1969) March 6, 2021
They do not want you in a house
They do not help your ailing spouse
They will not get grandma vaccine
They will not make your power clean
They do not want your vote to stay
They do not want your living pay
They do not like democracy
They do not like us – the GOP https://t.co/yssS7lz3jP— Candace Valenzuela (@candacefor24) March 6, 2021
They did not ban Green Eggs and Ham
I'm full of crap I am I am
So I will grandstand in a box.
And I will bullshit with a fox.
And I will showboat in a house.
And I will have ethics the size of a mouse.
And I will cry wolf here and there.
Say! I'm an asshole anywhere! https://t.co/PYT7dsBalI— Triumph® ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴsᴜʟᴛ ᴄᴏᴍɪᴄ ᴅᴏɢ™ Headquarters? (@TriumphICDHQ) March 6, 2021
imagine being this proud of being this much of a grandstanding buffoon
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) March 6, 2021
Let’s bothsider this:
On one hand we have leaders of one party trying to address a pandemic and economic crisis, infrastructure, voting rights, all while still trying to get President Biden’s cabinet in place.
On the other hand, Dr Seuss.
Anyway, we’ll have to leave it at that. Tune in Sunday so we can hear more about what “the other hand” has to say about this, and a caravan of something something.
I admire your restraint overlooking his lavender tie and lilac suit jacket. Of course, better lilac than tan.
On the other other hand, if Kevin McCarthy is finally trying to better himself, who am I to object?
I’m guessing Qevin’s lips were moving, and he was just looking at the pictures.
You still like Dr. Seuss? Nothing wrong with that, Kevin. The problem is I’m pretty sure you also still like eating paste, you stupid motherfucker.