Photo of Hyde Smith wearing Confederate soldier’s hat in 2014 resurfaces
A 2014 photo of Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) wearing a Confederate soldier’s hat resurfaced this week at a time when the senator is facing public blowback over comments she made about willing to be “on the front row” for a “public hanging.”
Hyde-Smith had posted a photo of herself on Facebook in 2014 wearing a Confederate soldier’s hat, which features the Confederate star. She took the photo while visiting former Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s home, according to her caption.
Other photos in the album show her holding Confederate-era guns and looking through a historic book.
The Facebook post was spotlighted in a story on Politico on Tuesday.
{mosads}”Currently on display are artifacts connected to the daily life of the Confederate Soldier including weapons,” Hyde-Smith wrote of Davis’s estate, which is now a historic site. “Mississippi history at its best!
Mississippi is deeply divided over its Confederate history, with some holding tight to monuments and relics from that period while others say Confederate symbols signify a brutal legacy of white supremacy and racism.
Hyde-Smith’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
The Facebook photos have comes on the heels of widespread backlash over a video that showed Hyde-Smith at a supporter’s event saying she would be “on the front row” if the person who invited her had asked her to attend “a public hanging.”
Hyde-Smith has said she made the comment in jest and repeatedly declined to comment on the matter beyond a statement describing the remark as an “exaggerated expression of regard” for a supporter.
Hyde-Smith is facing Democrat Mike Espy in a runoff on Nov. 27. The former Agriculture secretary under President Clinton is looking to become the first African-American senator from the state since Reconstruction.
The two are scheduled to face each other in a debate on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.
Civil rights groups, including the NAACP, called the “public hanging” comment deeply inappropriate given Mississippi’s history of lynching African-Americans.
Walmart said on Tuesday it is ending its financial support for Hyde-Smith after the video surfaced.
President Trump is set to travel to Mississippi on Monday to campaign for Hyde-Smith on the eve of the election.