When the video was posted is unclear, but a US Army infantry noncommissioned officer shared the video on his Twitter account on Thursday, saying, “Anyone recognize this racist? It’s hard to tell where he’s at, and sadly no name tapes,” meaning his name tag is not visible in the video. He also notes the video was originally found on Facebook.
Anyone recognize this racist? It’s hard to tell where he’s at, and sadly no name tapes. pic.twitter.com/jfm23cs8K4
— TheGrizz (@MiCBarin) October 8, 2020
However, several people replying to the Twitter post seemed to agree the interior of the room where it was filmed was easily recognizable as one of those at Marine Corps Communication-Electronics School in Twentynine Palms, California.
The Marine seen in the video, whose rank can be seen as Private First Class, says China will "pay for what they have done to this country and the world,” referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. He further references tweets by US President Donald Trump, who he calls “the honorable Trump,” that blame China for the pandemic outbreak.
“I don’t give a f**k. A c***k-headed motherf**ker comes up to me when I’m in the fleet, say five-five-six b***h,” he continues, referring to the 5.56-millimeter bullets fired by rifles like the M16 and M4.
Capt. Joe Butterfield, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon, told Military.com the Corps was trying to discover the Marine’s identity.
"There is no place for racism in the Marine Corps," Butterfield said. "Those who can't value the contributions of others, regardless of background, are destructive to our culture and do not represent our core values."
However, the Marine’s own rhetoric mirrors that of his commander-in-chief, who calls COVID-19 “the China virus.” In a Wednesday video presently pinned at the top of Trump’s Twitter feed, he swears revenge on the socialist nation of 1.3 billion people where the COVID-19 pandemic began in late 2019 and early 2020.
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com/uhLIcknAjT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020
"It wasn’t your fault that this happened, it was China’s fault. And China's going to pay a big price, what they've done to this country,” Trump says in the video filmed in front of the White House following his hospital discharge after contracting COVID-19. "China's going to pay a big price, what they've done to the world. This was China's fault. Just remember that."
