Rep. William Clay Lacy (D., Mo.) defended a controversial painting that depicts cops as pigs on the House floor Thursday.
High school student David Pulpous won a local art competition in Missouri for his painting depicting police officers as pigs in a violent confrontation with African-Americans. The painting was hung in the hallway of the U.S. Capitol among other art competition winners.
In mid-January, the controversial painting was taken down by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif) only to be rehung by Lacy later that day.
Lacy took to the House floor on Thursday to defend the painting.
"Without incident or concern, my constituent's winning entry was removed in an act of politically motivated, unconstitutional, retroactive censorship," Lacy said.
"This unconstitutional act of censorship will not stand," he said, noting it was the architect of the Capitol's job to approve the painting for public display.
The architect of the Capitol disqualified the painting ten months after approving it in the midst of political pressure, Lacy said.
"The architect of the Capitol miraculously traveled back in time to disqualify the very same painting that he had approved ten months ago," Lacy said. "Perhaps we should advise the National Academy of Sciences of the architect of the Capitol's newfound ability to bend the space-time continuum in order to retroactively respond to the most extreme voices in the majority so they could more easily suppress the rights of my young constituent."
Lacy claimed that as a result of the controversial painting, Pulphus has been subjected to racial attacks on social media.
"He has also been deprived of the honor of listing his first place victory in the congressional office art competition on his resume," Lacy claimed.
Lacy concluded his speech by saying he would fight to defend David's right to express himself.