Among the many rounds of fireworks during Michael Cohen's testimony Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee was an argument between Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) over Cohen's contention that his former boss President Trump is a racist, and Meadows' "black friend defense" of both Trump and himself. Tlaib criticized Meadows for bringing Lynne Patton, a black longtime Trump employee and political appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to the hearing to rebut Cohen's claim that Trump is racist.
"The fact someone would actually use a prop, a black woman in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself," Tlaib said. Meadows angrily protested that he's not racist, proffering as proof his friendship with committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and his black nieces and nephews. Tlaib clarified that she wasn't calling Meadows racist. And on Thursday, Meadows approached Tlaib on the House floor, they talked for about a minute, and then the two hugged it out.
"Mark Meadows came up to me and said that I had been gracious in our exchange yesterday," Tlaib told The Associated Press. Separately, Meadows said Tlaib "said she didn't mean it yesterday, so there was no need to apologize."
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