March Madness is certainly in full swing.
On Friday, the fifth-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs take on the top-ranked Purdue Boilermakers in the Sweet 16 round of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament in Detroit. It should be an epic showdown for a dominant pair of teams, but Michigan State Rep. Matt Maddock apparently had issues more pressing than college sports in mind when he posted an alarming tweet on Wednesday night.
“Happening right now,” Maddock wrote. “Three busses [sic] just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort?” Attached to the tweet were grainy photos of white buses at Detroit’s airport and a plane. He tagged Pete Hoekstra, a former representative for Michigan in Congress and Ambassador to the Netherlands under Donald Trump.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It should be an epic showdown for a dominant pair of teams, but Michigan State Rep. Matt Maddock apparently had issues more pressing than college sports in mind when he posted an alarming tweet on Wednesday night.
Maddock’s pointed question, which has apparently been viewed 4 million times on X (formerly Twitter), is of a piece with a far-right conspiracy theories about how the Biden administration is secretly flying thousands of migrants into the country.
These unfounded claims have fueled belief in the so-called “Great Replacement” theory, which holds that the population of white Americans is being overwhelmed by non-white demographics with the help of Democrats and other nefarious actors.
Maxwell White, a producer for Detroit’s WXYZ Channel 7, confirmed that the buses were for Gonzaga, while Rep. Eric Swalwell of California ridiculed Maddock for the mistake.
Gretchen Whitmer “is offering money to take them in!” He also retweeted a post from right-wing talk radio host Jesse Kelly, who wrote that red states should seize control of immigration systems from federal authorities in order to deport individuals.
As yet, Maddock appears to have taken no notice of the thousands of replies mocking him for the false identification of celebrated American college athletes as “invaders” from across the border, and at this point, it doesn’t look like he’ll be backing down.
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