Atlanta shooting hearing: Grace Meng gives tearful testimony as Chip Roy ‘glorifies lynching’

Good morning and thank you for joining us as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to hold a hearing on discrimination and violence against Asian Americans.

The hearing begins at 10am ET and will consider ways to prevent racially motivated attacks as it examines both the historic and more recent forms of discrimination felt by Asian Americans.

It comes just days after a shooting spree in Atlanta, Georgia killed eight people at three spas, including six Asian women.

Andrew Buncombe provided our initial coverage of the incidents in Atlanta on Tuesday evening.

Here’s what we know so far about Robert Aaron Long who was arrested by police in Georgia later on Tuesday.

Donald Trump has been accused of “inflaming” anti-Asian sentiment with comments he made amid the coronavirus pandemic in the wake of shootings at a number of massage parlors in Atlanta.

A 21-year-old man was arrested in connection with the shootings in the state on Tuesday after eight people, many of them women of Asian descent, were killed across three spas in Georgia.

No motive for the killings has yet been established and it is not yet clear whether there was racial motivation, but fears have emerged that the killer may have deliberately targeted people of Asian descent.

Louise Hall reports.

The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties is holding today’s hearing on discrimination and violence against Asian Americans.

The committee consists of:

Democrats (Majority)

Steve Cohen, Tennessee, Chair Jamie Raskin, Maryland Deborah K. Ross, North Carolina Hank Johnson, Georgia Sylvia Garcia, Texas Cori Bush, Missouri Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas

Republicans (Minority)

Mike Johnson, Louisiana, Ranking Member Tom McClintock, California Chip Roy, Texas Michelle Fischbach, Minnesota Burgess Owens, Utah

Ex Officio

Jerrold Nadler, New York - Democrat Jim Jordan, Ohio - Republican

A moment of silence was held after chairman Cohen gavelled the hearing into session.

Chairman Cohen listed a number of horrific attacks on Asian Americans as he made his opening remarks and reminded those present that anti-Asian sentiments did not begin with the pandemic, but were exacerbated by it.

He then reminds the committee of the history of official government policies against Asian populations such as Chinese workers in the west of the country and the internment of Japanese Americans.

A sheriff’s deputy is under fire for saying the main accused in the Atlanta spa shooting, in which eight people died, was having “a bad day,” even as one of his own old social media posts that hinted at racism resurfaced.

Stuti Mishra reports.

In his remarks, Congressman Chip Roy of Texas acknowledges the tragedy in Atlanta and says the victims of race -based violence deserve justice, but then goes on to add that “victims of cartels moving illegal aliens deserve justice, American citizens in South Texas, victims of rioting and looting last year” do too.

He then spent much of his time railing against the Chinese Communist Party’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and defending his own use of the term “Chicoms” and worrying about attacks on free speech.

It’s probably not what advocates against violence were hoping to hear in the opening moments.

The hearing is currently in recess because, like the rest of us, even a year into the pandemic Congress still gets technical glitches during web camera-based meetings.