Fiery tirade from Republican senators against Democratic leader ends overnight session
In the middle of the 22nd hour after Thursday’s legislative session began, two Republican state senators launched a bitter and emotional counterattack on the Senate Democratic leader who had accused them of racist acts in an e-mail.
Sens. Gene Suellentrop of Wichita and Rob Olson of Olathe tore into Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka over the e-mail he sent Wednesday objecting to their treatment of state Labor Secretary Delia Garcia.
Following the passage of the final bill in the session, Suellentrop asked to address the Senate on personal privilege.
“I don’t know what it’s like to be called the N-word, I can’t even fathom that,” Suellentrop said. “You know what? I feel it’s pretty close to that, the vile, vulgar accusation of being a racist.”
He said both his sons are married to Latinas and he has two Hispanic grandchildren.
He said Hensley, a teacher and 43-year veteran of the Legislature, “has been on the government payroll in two different manners for years and years and years and what has he contributed to this state? A little bit of history?
“In the businesses that I’ve owned, I would venture to say I’ve employed more minorities, people of color in the restaurant and hospitality industry, than he has taught in his class in the last 30 years. He calls me a racist, a foul, vulgar, repugnant statement.”
Hensley sat silently through the criticism and left the Statehouse shortly after the marathon session adjourned.
At issue was an e-mail he sent to the members of the Senate and House objecting to the way Suellentrop and Olson treated Garcia during a May 14 meeting on problems that have surfaced in the unemployment payment system amid tens of thousands of layoffs and furloughs related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Rather than using their time to discuss productive solutions to improve the lives of unemployed Kansans during the COVID-19 crisis, they used their time to berate Secretary of Labor Delia Garcia and her staff over an unemployment system that has been long overdue for an upgrade,” Hensley wrote.
“Senate President Susan Wagle also participated in this public partisan beat down. I find it deeply disturbing that Wagle and her fellow white Republican male colleagues, particularly Senators Olson and Sullentrop, would engage in these vitriolic, unwarranted and implicit racist attacks against a distinguished Latina leader like Secretary Garcia,” the e-mail continued.
Olson followed Suellentrop with an equally fiery speech.
He said like Suellentrop, he has minority family and friends.
“The guy I run with at night, my best friends I spend most of my time with, they’re not from America,” he said.
Olson also invoked the memory of his late father, a Korean War veteran and a fan of John and Robert Kennedy.
“He named me Robert Olson. Who do you think he named me after?” Olson said. “He left your party because you left him.”
“I buried him three weeks ago,” Olson said, his voice cracking with emotion. “Him, his brothers fought for this country. That’s the kind of respect his son gets on state letterhead?”
Olson said he thinks Hensley should be disciplined by the Senate for the e-mail.
“I can’t believe that someone could put something like this in writing and slander other members,” he said.
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 10:00 AM.
