An already tense hearing involving Trump's former repairman, Michael Cohen, has heated up when a Democratic congressman and a Republican congressman exchanged accusations of racism.
The outbreak began when Representative Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Questioned Cohen and criticized Rep. Mark Meadows for bringing Lynne Patton, a black woman friend with the Trump family, and working for the government to the hearing. federal. as "prop." Meadows had introduced Patton to the audience to reject Cohen's claims that the president was a racist.
"It's not because someone has a person of color, a black man who works for her, that's not racist, and it's foolish that some would even say – the fact that someone would use an accessory, a black woman, in this chamber, in this committee, he is the only racist in itself, "said the Democratic recruit.
Angry Meadows asked Elijah Cummings, president of the Observatory, to delete comments from D-Maryland. "I'm sure she did not intend to do it, but if someone knows my criminal record, it should be you, Mr. Chairman," did he? he tells Cummings.
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Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC)
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WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 27: US Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC), told a hearing that Michael Cohen, a former lawyer and mediator for President Donald Trump, was testifying before the Oversight Committee of the House at Capitol Hill, February 27, 2019, in Washington, DC Last year, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $ 50,000 for tax evasion, false statements to an institution financial, excessive illicit contributions to the election campaign and lie in Congress as part of the investigation of the special advocate Robert Mueller on the inquiry conducted by Russia Presidential elections of 2016. (Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Mark Meadows, candidate for the North Carolina Congress, speaks at the second session of the 2012 Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa on Tuesday, August 28, 2012. (Harry E. Walker / MCT via Getty Images)
Representative Mark Meadows, RN.C, center, representative Tom Graves, R-Ga., Right, and other conservative Republicans discuss their goal of obstructing the Affordable Care Act, Better known as Obamacare, as part of a strategy to legislate will fund the government on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, September 19, 2013. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Mark Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina, listens to the comments of Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, who is not photographed, are examined at a House Oversight Committee hearing with Michael Cohen, former personal advocate of US President Donald Trump, who is not photographed. in Washington, DC, United States, Wednesday, February 27, 2019. Cohen presented documents at Wednesday's congressional hearing to confirm his case that his former boss is a "crook" and "cheater." Photographer: Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Of the. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-OC, Left, and House Management Subcommittee Chair Mark Meadows, NR. conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, May 12, 2016, before the subcommittee hearing on whether the Columbia District government really has the power to spend local tax money without Congressional approval. (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik)
Rep. Of North Carolina, Mark Meadows, interviewed witnesses at a Government Oversight Committee and Government Reform hearing in Washington, DC on Wednesday, November 13, 2013. Legislators Republicans have criticized potential security loopholes in US health exchanges with Obama. The administration officials said that they had made protecting the privacy of customers a top priority in their efforts to repair the website. Photographer: Pete Marovich / Bloomberg via Getty Images
DOSSIER – In this archival photo of September 26, 2014, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. speak to Washington. The rivals of Senator Ted Cruz like to say that he has no friends in Washington. Despite a flagrant lack of support from Senate colleagues – not a single support, the Republican presidential candidate and freshman in Texas has a small group of loyal but loyal supporters in the House who attend meetings , meet voters and try to convince voters that he is not so mean. Meadows said he's been to Cruz events "to really tell Ted Cruz's personal side that not many people know." (AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Republican Members of the Republican House Oversight Committee and the Government Reform Committee, Representative Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., Representative Mark Meadows, RN.C. and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Listens to Capitol Hill, Washington Thursday, July 7, 2016, as FBI Director James Comey testifies before the committee hearing to explain his agency's recommendation not to sue Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her private email during her tenure as secretary of state. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
The House Watch Committee representative, Mark Meadows, R-NC., Returns to the in camera hearing after speaking to members of the media about the Department of Justice representative's interrogation, Bruce G. Ohr, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Tuesday, August 28th. 2018. Ohr will be interviewed as part of an investigation into the decisions made by the department in 2016. (AP Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Rep. Mark Meadows, RN.C., left, chair of the House Freedom Conservative caucus, and Doug Collins, R-Ga., Representative, right, attend a House Republicans meeting as congressional work resumes after the suspension of the work of August, at the Capitol in Washington, on Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Meadows opposes the proposals of the GOP leaders to associate the bill with the help of Harvey's urgency to increase the US debt limit. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Mark Meadows, RN.C., chairman of conservative Freedom Caucus, speaks in a television interview just before the passage of the bill on the Republican tax reform in the House of Commons. Representatives, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Tuesday, December 19, 2017. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
Representative Mark Meadows, RN.C, opposes the efforts of House Watch and Reform Committee Chair Elijah Cummings, D-Md., To assign Trump administration to separations of families on the southern border, at Capitol Hill, Washington, on Tuesday, 26, 2019. The committee voted in favor of a subpoena of Trump administration officials about family separations to the South border, the first at the new Congress, while the Democrats had promised to hold the administration aggressively. The decision of the Oversight Committee will oblige those responsible for justice, internal security, health and social services to hand over the documents. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
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When asked to clarify his remarks, Tlaib said, "I'm just saying that's what I think I have happened and as a person of color on this committee, that's what it's all about." I felt like that at the time, and I wanted to express that, but I'm not calling the gentleman, Mr. Meadows, a racist to do it, I say in and of itself that it's a racist act. "
The North Carolina Republican and close Trump ally denied using Patton as an accessory – and claimed that the accusation was racist.
"To indicate that I asked someone who is a personal friend of the Trump family, who worked for him, who knows that particular person, that she would come to be an accessory – that It's racist to suggest that I ask him to come here for this reason, "he said. "She loves this family." She came because she felt that the President of the United States was wrongly accused. "
He said that he had taken the accusation especially as an individual because "my nieces and nephews are people of color, but few people know that, you know, Mr. Chairman."
Cummings responded that he could "see and feel" Meadows' pain and called him "one of my best friends" before giving Tlaib another opportunity to clarify his remarks.
She maintained that her intention was not to qualify Meadows as a racist and said, "I'm sorry if that's what it gives."
"As everyone knows in this chamber, I'm pretty direct, so if I meant I would have done it, but that's not what I said," a- she declared.
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
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In this photo of the November 6, 2008, Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat, is photographed in front of the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Tlaib's main victory in Michigan, which is expected to become the first Muslim and US-Palestinian woman to serve the US Congress, is echoing across the Middle East. In the West Bank village where Tlaib's mother was born, residents greet the news with a mixture of pride and hope that she will attack an American administration widely perceived as hostile to the Palestinian cause.
(AP Photo / Al Goldis, File)
In this photo from Wednesday, August 8, 2018, Rashida Tlaib's aunt Fadwa Tlaib names a young Rashida in a 1987 photo with her mother Fatima and her brother Nader at the family home in the village of Beit Ur al in the West Bank. . -Foqa. Tlaib's main victory in Michigan, which is expected to become the first Muslim and US-Palestinian woman to sit in the US Congress, is impacting the Middle East. In the West Bank village where Tlaib's mother was born, residents greet the news with a mixture of pride and hope that she will attack an American administration widely perceived as hostile to the Palestinian cause. (AP Photo / Nasser Nasser)
Representative Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Speaks at a press conference in Capitol Hill, Washington on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, to unveil the "Law Providing Relief" Bill. Immediate Financial Plan for Federal Employees ", which would provide $ 6,000 zero-interest loans to employees affected by the Government's decision and any future judgment. (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik)
No sign of the opponent can erase our smiles of hope.
Representative Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Interrogates Michael Cohen, Former President Donald Trump's Advocate, During His Testimony Before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Capitol Hill, Wednesday, February 27, 2019 , in Washington. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., on the left, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., On the right, laughing while waiting for the other members of Congress to send a letter calling for the end of the closure of the government to hand over to the Senate Majority's Office, Mitch McConnell, Ky., Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Wednesday, January 16, 2019. (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik)
Just vote with my son Adam. #MakingHistoryTogether
So Yousif came with me to one of our senior lunches and we met Mother Williams who was 104 years old (Mashallah). Yousif turns to me and says, "I thought you were dead at age 100." Everyone laughed. I like to be with people that I will fight and serve in Congress.
Eid Mubarak from my family to yours. @adamtlaib @ fayez492
A beautiful day … so excited. # 2 days volunteering on www.rashidaforcongress.com
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Patton, now an official with the US Department of Housing and Development, made his unusual appearance at the beginning of the hearing.
"I asked Lynne to come today," Meadows told Cohen as she stood behind the congressman.
"You do not agree with Mrs. Patton about the President." She says that as a girl of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, it was impossible for her to work. for a racist person, how do you reconcile this? "
Cohen replied, "Ask Mrs. Patton how many black people are in leadership positions at the Trump Organization." The answer is zero.
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