Donald Trump Jr. on Friday mocked Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and other demonstrators who were arrested on Thursday after engaging in a protest at the U.S. Capitol calling on Congress to pass voting rights legislation.
Beatty was arrested on Thursday by Capitol Police for “illegal demonstration activity.”
Prior to her arrest, the Democratic House lawmaker shared photos on Twitter of the protest, along with the caption, “Black women are demanding OUR right to vote! We’re marching to the Senate to send a strong message.”
Trump Jr. responded to Beatty’s message with a tweet of his own.
“This is terrible,” Trump tweeted sarcastically. “I had no idea that Black Women couldn’t vote. How is this not a bigger story?”
His tweet garnered more than 12,000 likes and more than 2,000 retweets.
Beatty has called for legislation including the For the People Act, a sweeping voting bill, to place federal regulations on elections.
Several GOP-led states in recent months have introduced or passed election legislation that limits mail-in ballots and restricts voter registration including in Arizona and Georgia — two states that President Biden flipped from red to blue in the 2020 presidential election.
Earlier this week, Texas Democratic state legislators fled the state to Washington, D.C., in an effort to block legislation that would tighten voting restrictions in the Long Star State from consideration. By fleeing the state, their idea was to deny Republicans a quorum needed for the special legislative session.
Following their trip to D.C., Gov. Greg Abbot (R) threatened to arrest the Democrats upon their return to the state.
“If these people want to be hanging out wherever they’re hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they’re going to have to be prepared to do it for well over a year,” the governor told local media on Monday.
Critics have said that the measures will disproportionately affect communities of color.
On Thursday, Beatty shared a tweet to let her supporters know that her arrest would not keep her from speaking on the issue.
“You can arrest me. You can’t stop me. You can’t silence me,” she tweeted.
Later on Friday, Beatty hit back at Trump on Twitter.
“Head’s up @DonaldTrumpJr… Since your Dad lost, got kicked off Facebook & Twitter for inciting an insurrection that killed 5, & keeps lying about the election, Govs. Kemp & Abbott and Republican states are working overtime to deny Americans’ the right to vote. It’s a big story,” she retorted.
Updated 4:39 p.m.