*One of the highlights of the Michael Cohen hearing before Congress on Wednesday was what happened when things took a racial turn and tempers flared.
In response to Republican North Carolina Representative Mark Meadows propping up a black woman (Lynne Patton) – in an effort to combat claims that President Donald Trump is racist – Democratic Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib responded that Meadows’ act itself could be considered “racist.”
“Just because someone has a person of color, a black person, working for them does not mean they aren’t racist and…the fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself,” Tlaib said.
At that point Meadows immediately freaked and demanded that her words be taken down. Asked by House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings if she’d like to rephrase what she said, Tlaib clarified her comments.
“I am not calling the gentleman, Mr. Meadows, a racist, for doing so, I’m saying that, in itself, it is a racist act,” Tlaib said.
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Knowing that it it literally wasn’t a good look and that his move was backfiring, Meadows had to vigorously defend himself in a hot back-and-forth.
“There’s nothing more personal to me than my relationship—my nieces and nephews are people of color—not many people know that,” Meadows said. “And to indicate that I ask someone who is a personal friend of the Trump family, who has worked for him, who knows [Cohen], that’s she coming in to be a ‘prop’—it’s racist to suggest that I ask her to come in here for that reason.”
Obviously Meadows felt compelled to defend Trump because of Cohen’s opening/prepared remarks in which he called Trump a “racist,” “con man” and a “cheat.”
Meadows had previously in the hearing brought Patton forward in an effort to counteract that claim.
“She says as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was a racist,” Meadows said. “How do you reconcile the two of those?”
Without missing a beat, Cohen responded:
“Neither should I, as the son of a Holocaust survivor.”
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