In the safety of CNN’s media bubble, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib doubled down on her dispute with Rep. Mark Meadows over what she called a “racist” act.
The Michigan Democrat may have apologized for the comment she claimed was misinterpreted during a House Oversight Committee hearing for Michael Cohen, but she appeared to have no regrets when asked about the fiery exchange by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.
“At that moment, it was important for me to speak truth to power,” says @RepRashida Tlaib, who appeared to accuse Rep. Meadows of “racist” act of using a black woman as a “prop” at the Cohen testimony. https://t.co/T8wv3v74pH pic.twitter.com/Ad6qyuNs6h
— New Day (@NewDay) February 28, 2019
Tlaib was rebuked by House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings during Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony on Wednesday after she ripped into Meadows for the “racist” act of inviting a longtime Trump family friend and employee to the hearing.
Meadows fired back at the Muslim lawmaker after she accused him of using Housing and Urban Development official Lynne Patton as a “prop” at the proceedings. Cummings interjected by calling on Tlaib to rephrase her comments to which she responded that it was not her intention to call the North Carolina Republican a racist.
Tables turn on Rashida Tlaib when she derails Cohen testimony, accuses Mark Meadows of pulling a racist stunt https://t.co/DLqlJtUgLK pic.twitter.com/b3nBQMzcRO
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) February 28, 2019
“That was not my intention. I do apologize if that’s what it sounded like, ” she said Wednesday.
In lieu of apologies, Tlaib reiterated her original accusation later on CNN, and deftly dodged the direct question when Camerota brought it up in an interview on “New Day.”
“Do you still believe today that Congressman Mark Meadows engaged in a racist act?” the CNN host asked.
Tlaib responded saying that Meadows’ act was “insensitive” and claimed “folks at home kind of gasped” when that happened.
“If we want to talk about race in this country, that was not the way do it,” she added.
Tlaib insisted she meant “no disrespect” to Patton at all, though the same could not be said about Camerota who condescendingly read the longtime Trump staffer’s Instagram post in a sneering tone. Tlaib added that Meadows’ act was “not the right way” to address what she called Trump’s racist rhetoric.
Camerota agreed with the lawmaker that “people at home” who were watching the hearing thought it was “tone-deaf and insensitive” of Meadows to invite Patton. The Democrat, in a telling remark, acknowledged that she, like many of the other freshman lawmakers in Congress “ran because we wanted Congress to not only look differently, but also speak differently and feel differently.”
She added that “at that moment, it was important for me to speak truth to power.”
When asked by Camerota again “to be clear,” whether she thinks Meadows is not racist, Tlaib responded, “I feel like the act was. That’s up to the American people to decide whether or not he is.”
Patton took to Instagram following the outburst Wednesday, defending Meadows and herself, noting her successes and that hers was not a resume of a “prop.”
Speaking with “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, Patton defended Trump as someone who ““does not see color, race, creed, religion. What he sees is success and failure.”
She also addressed Tlaib’s remark.
“What I would like to ask the congresswoman of Michigan,” Paton began, “is why she takes the word of a self-confessed perjurer, criminally convicted white man over a black female who is highly educated, rose up through the ranks of one of the most competitive companies in real estate, spoke before 25 million people at the Republican National Convention, and now works in one of the most historic administrations in history?”
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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