GOP congressman defends controversial BLM comments while wearing a glittery St. Patrick's Day hat

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) decided to accessorize his time in the hot seat with a little holiday spirit.

Grothman was criticized last week after he claimed on the House floor that the Black Lives Matter movement "doesn't like the old-fashioned family."

Arguing that the COVID-19 stimulus bill's increase in the earned income tax credit for single people penalized married couples, Grothman somehow pinned the issue on racial justice activists, saying he knows "the strength that Black Lives Matter had in this last election."

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"I know it's a group that it doesn't like the old-fashioned family," he said. "I'm disturbed that we have another program here in which we're increasing the marriage penalty."

Inexplicably donning a glittery St. Patrick's Day hat, Grothman spoke to Fox 11 News on Sunday. The Wisconsin lawmaker defended his remarks by saying he was referring to the organization's "Marxist founders," and cited a Black Lives Matter webpage that called to "disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and 'villages' that collectively care for one another, especially our children."

Reporter Kia Murray asked Grothman if he understood how the remarks could be offensive. "I think it's offensive when Marxist groups, [which are] anti-family, anti-free market, anti-God, I think it's offensive when groups like that have influence in Washington," he responded.

He did not mention the hat. Summer Meza