New Rochelle Lawyer In Viral Tiff With Lawmaker Keeps Focus On Issue

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The local attorney at the center of a viral exchange with a congressman from Louisiana, isn't letting the lawmaker off the hook, but appears determined to keep the focus on issues of environmental justice rather that the theater that took place during her recent testimony.

It was her testimony as an expert witness during a recent House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing that thrust New Rochelle lawyer Raya Salter into the national spotlight, when Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) berated Salter over her testimony on the subject of the fossil fuel industry’s role in climate disinformation.

When Salter, who sits on the New York State Climate Action Council, didn't accept the Higgins' assertion that without petrochemicals, the desk she was using, her clothes and her testimony would not exist, the lawmaker became incensed, shouting at the witness.

"My good lady, I’m trying to give you the floor, boo," he interrupted. "Okay, so what will you do with the products that you consume?"

It was later in the hearing, when a high profile representative from Salter's home state came to her defense that the public "disrespect" of the New York attorney during her testimony went viral on social media.

"I wanted to address Ms. Salter directly," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said during the televised hearing. "I just want you to know that in the four years that I've sat on this committee, I have never seen members of Congress, Republican or Democrat, disrespect a witness in the way that I have seen them disrespect you today."

The congresswoman said that she would have found Salter's treatment every bit as reprehensible if it had occurred at the hands of a member of her own party.

"Frankly, men who treat women like that in public," Ocasio-Cortez continued. "I fear how they treat them in private."

In part because Higgins' grandstanding in front of the cameras earned an admonishment from Ocasio-Cortez, the congressman was rewarded with a prime slot on the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight.

For her part, while condemning Higgins' behavior as "racist and misogynistic," the environmental justice lawyer told USA Today that she would much rather concentrate on the issues that she was there to testify about in the first place.

"I am unbothered, I am undeterred," Salter told the newspaper. "I am not intimidated by their threats and their media attacks on me. The focus must be on environmental justice and the fossil fuel industry that is disproportionately harming and killing Black, Indigenous people of color."

Throughout her career, the New Rochelle lawyer has advocated around the globe, not just for protecting the environment, but also for the most vulnerable among us, who too often bear the brunt of climate change and destructive practices.

"Thank you @AOC. I would not be silenced by @RepClayHiggins," Slater wrote in a defiant tweet posted on Monday morning. "so let's talk about #petrochemicals in #Louisiana that are disproportionately killing Black people, shattering climate efforts and suffocating the world in plastic and other toxics."