Dem: No apology for ‘noose’ remark about Scott Walker

Rep. Gwen Moore (Wis.) on Tuesday refused to apologize for saying that that Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker is “tightening the noose, literally” around African-Americans.

Moore, a black Democrat from Milwaukee, said Walker is the one who should be apologizing, for the policies enacted during his time as Wisconsin governor.

“I’m not going to apologize for making those comments, and let me tell you why. I have a long history with Scott Walker, obviously, and I have seen a trend of his to double down on racial polarization in order to feed red meat to his base,” Moore said in an interview, her first since the comments on Monday.

“Maybe he doesn’t say things that are objectionable, but what he does concerns me more than what he might say,” she said. “Scott Walker should apologize to the African-American community for his policies.”

Specifically, Moore said she takes issue with Walker’s support for voter ID laws and his support for drug testing of public assistance recipients. She also argues he has allowed the underfunding of a state program that provides independent reviews of shootings involving police officers.

The Democrat said she hoped Walker would meet with members of the Black Lives Matter movement and that he has used “proxy language for raising the issue of urban problems.”

Moore and Walker have a long political history. Moore defeated Walker in a race for state representative in 1990, delivering him the only defeat of his political career.

A representative for Walker couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. On Monday, the campaign assailed Moore’s “noose” remark as “inflammatory and inappropriate.”

“Governor Walker will continue to focus on presenting solutions for Americans and uniting the country, while others continue to create division,” Walker spokeswoman AshLee Strong wrote in an email to The Hill.