Rep. Peter Welch apologized for a statement about the current government shutdown which did not acknowledge America's history of slavery.
"Never in the history of this country has it been legal to make people work for free but that’s what’s happening to federal employees," Welch tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
A similar statement was originally made during a press conference earlier in the day, while the congressman was speaking about how hundreds of thousands of government workers are required to work without pay during the ongoing partial government shutdown.
It generated more attention after Welch sent the aforementioned remarks from his official Twitter feed, along with a link to VTDigger coverage of the press conference.
Never in the history of this country has it been legal to make people work for free but that’s what’s happening to federal employees. This can never happen again.https://t.co/mqTLNh6lhY
— Rep. Peter Welch (@PeterWelch) January 22, 2019
About two hours later, Welch tweeted an apology for his remarks overlooking "the brutal inhumanity of the horrible, relentless, and savage infliction of involuntary servitude-slavery" in the United States.
Sincere apologies.
— Rep. Peter Welch (@PeterWelch) January 22, 2019
Nothing worse in the history of our country than the brutal inhumanity of the horrible, relentless, and savage infliction of involuntary servitude-slavery- on millions of people whose freedom was denied.
Nothing.
