
JEFFERSON CITY, MO (KMOX) - A southwest Missouri lawmaker is under fire for using the phrase "Chinese virus" on the house floor, during Tuesday's debate over a bill to tax online purchases.
Rep. Brian Seitz (R-Branson) was expressing his opposition to the Wayfair Tax when he said, "I remind the body that the Chinese virus has not shut down one business ..."
Rep. Emily Weber (D-Kansas City) says it isn't the first time Seitz has used that phrase, but she wants it to be the last. Weber tells KMOX it's especially wrong for Seitz to say it at a time when attacks on Asian-Americans are on the rise.
"The hate in his rhetoric is one of the forces that is causing some of this racism and bigotry toward the AAPI community and I'm not going to stand for it," Weber says.
According to Pew Research, about 3-in-10 Asian-Americans say they have been mistreated or discriminated against because of their race.
Weber says she has filed a complaint against Seitz and if he says it again on the floor, she will call a point of order. "
I will call him out," she says. "I will make reports and I will continue to make sure that he's not allowed to say things like that in the Capitol ever again."
Seitz has not returned our calls for comment.
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