Walmart is finally “requesting a refund” from the campaign of Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The retailer’s Tuesday announcement is a response to many public critics, like actress Debra Messing, who took issue with Hyde-Smith’s comments that she’d be “in the front row” of a “public hanging.”
@slpng_giants After lynching comments, Walmart donates to Cindy Hyde-Smith https://t.co/911lfMf6po
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) November 19, 2018
The company made a $2,000 donation to her campaign, NBC News reported, on Nov 18 — nearly two weeks after a video of her controversial remarks went viral. Walmart also made a $1,000 donation to her campaign in June of this year.
Hyde-Smith has attempted to deny that her remarks had any negative connotations to them; regardless of how some of her constituents in Mississippi may feel about obvious connection a “public hanging” has to the charged history of racial violence and lynching against African Americans in the state.
Hyde-Smith faces a runoff election on Nov. 27 against former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, who is African-American.
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