State Official Faces Backlash for Comparing Congresswomen in White to KKK

On Wednesday, Alabama Auditor Jim Zeigler shared an image of the Democratic women of the House of Representatives wearing white to Facebook juxtaposed beneath a photo of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) with a caption that read, “IN CONGRESS now appearing without hoods Nancy Pelosi and the Klannettes.”

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., the only Democrat in Alabama’s legislative delegation to Congress, was one of the women in white Tuesday night. She and her comrades opted to coordinate their outfits at President Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress on Tuesday night to visually signal a need for greater gender equality, as well as an ode to the suffragettes who fought for women’s right to vote. (The white pantsuit has also famously became a sartorial symbol for Hillary Clinton supporters.)

Sewell is now calling out Zeigler’s post (which has since been deleted) — and asking for an apology.

As Sewell told reporters, “I wore white to President Trump’s Joint Session address with my other female colleagues to honor those American women who sacrificed so that all women could have an equal voice in our democracy,” referencing the suffragette origins of the all-white outfits.

She continued, “It is highly insulting and completely disrespectful for Alabama’s State Auditor Zeigler to equate the celebration of woman’s rights into a vile statement of racial hatred like the KKK. He should apologize for behavior so offensive and unbecoming of any elected official. His voters should hold him accountable for such shameful disregard of women.”

In a statement to AL.com, Zeigler said, “I have the same First Amendment right criticize them that they have to protest.” Yahoo Style has reached out to Zeigler for comment and will update you if we hear back.

Zeigler is not the first public figure to publicly diss the collective fashion statement. Representative Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said during a radio town hall in Fargo, N.D., on Wednesday, “Did you notice how poorly several of them were dressed, as well?” about his female colleagues on the other side of the aisle. “It is a syndrome. There is no question. There is a disease associated with the notion that a bunch of women would wear bad-looking white pantsuits in solidarity with Hillary Clinton to celebrate her loss. You cannot get that weird.”

In response, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted, “Thank you for illustrating why we so badly need to honor #WomensHistoryMonth.”

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