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Republican Kevin McCarthy stages pathetic Dr Seuss protest. Meanwhile, Americans are dying of COVID

Kevin McCarthy Green Eggs and Ham Dr Seuss

(Twitter/Kevin McCarthy)

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has released a five-minute video of himself reading Dr Seuss seemingly in protest at six of the author’s books being pulled from publication.

McCarthy posted the video of him reading from Dr Seuss’ iconic book Green Eggs and Ham on Twitter on Saturday (6 March), days after it was announced six of the author’s books would cease to be printed because of their racist and insensitive imagery.

He captioned the post: “I still like Dr Seuss so I decided to read Green Eyes and Ham.”

McCarthy then called on others to retweet his video if “you still like him too”.

 

It came after Dr Seuss Enterprises, which preserves and protects the author’s legacy, told The Associated Press that it would end reprints of six books that “portray people in ways that are hurtful in wrong”.

“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr Seuss Enterprises’ catalogue represents and supports all communities and families,” it said.

The books in question are And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat’s Quizzer.

It’s unclear why McCarthy chose Green Eggs and Ham, which isn’t one of the six books affected by the decision of Dr Seuss Enterprises, and the internet was as confused as it was unimpressed.

Molly Jong-Fast, editor of The Daily Beast, wrote on Twitter: “Democrats are passing COVID relief And Republicans are reading Dr Seuss”.

Another Twitter user pointed out: Actually, we have a national pandemic going on as well as an economic crisis. Isn’t there more important things you ought to be thinking about?”

Right-wing media and politicians have taken the pulling of Dr Seuss’ books as another sign of “cancel culture”.

Texas senator Ted Cruz wrongly suggested, without evidence, that the “cancellation” of Dr Seuss was the fault of president Joe Biden. In the first of a series of bizarre tweets, Cruz posted an image of several Dr Seuss’ books topping an online bestseller list, captioning it: “Who knew Joe Biden was such a great bookseller.”

He then asked if Biden could “try to ban my book next” as it was apparently a bestseller on Amazon “a couple of months ago”.

 

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