Rep. Clay Higgins.Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
After posting an unusual tweet amidRussia’s invasion of Ukraine, Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins is facing push-back from an unlikely place: the dictionary.
“You millennial leftists who never lived one day under nuclear threat can now reflect upon your woke sky,” Higginstweetedon Sunday. “You made quite a non-binary fuss to save the world from intercontinental ballistic tweets.”
In response, the account forDictionary.com— one of the major digital English dictionaries — directed its own post at Higgins, writing, “We’re not entirely sure what this tweet is supposed to mean, and we’re literally the dictionary.”
Other lawmakers also mocked Higgins for the tweet, with Democratic Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez— no stranger to social media skirmishes herself — offering her own take.
“I’ve sat on a committee with this guy for years. He talks like this every day,” the New York lawmaker tweeted.
Higgins' “nuclear threat” comment is seemingly in reference to Russian PresidentVladimir Putinrecently ordering Russian forces, which include its nuclear weapons, to a heightened state of readiness.
The White House has said they feel Putin is “manufacturing threats” with such a move, which he said was done amid ongoing tension with Europe and the West.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine meanwhile continues after the country invaded on Thursday, with forces moving from the north, south and east.
During a Sundayappearance onThis Week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed Putin’s move to raise Russia’s nuclear alert status.
“This is really a pattern that we’ve seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression. And the global community and the American people should look at it through that prism. We’ve seen him do this time and time again,” Psaki told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Putin’s decision was a “totally unacceptable” escalation in the war with Ukraine, insinuating it was an intimidation tactic.
“Putin has tried every means possible to actually put fear in the world in terms of his action, and it just means that we have to ramp up our efforts here at the United Nations and elsewhere to hold him accountable,“Thomas-Greenfield told CBS News' Margaret Brennanduring an interview onFace the Nationon Sunday. “Certainly nothing is off the table with this guy. He’s willing to use whatever tools he can to intimidate Ukrainians and the world.”
source: people.com
