LOS ANGELES,CA, ( 2/28/19) — After Rep. Mark Meadows defended himself against allegations of racism during a House committee meeting Wednesday, critics resurfaced two 2012 videos of the North Carolina Republican in which he vowed to send then-President Barack Obama "home to Kenya."
The videos were released in response to an exchange between Meadows and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., during a hearing featuring President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen. Meadows invited Lynne Patton – a longtime Trump associate and current Housing and Urban Development official – to the hearing and referred to her while disputing Cohen's allegation that the president is a racist.
"Just because someone has a person of color, a black person working for them, does not mean they aren't racist," Tlaib said. She added that the use of Patton as a political "prop" was "racism in itself."
Meadows angrily denied the implication of racism and asked for Tlaib's comments to be "stricken from the record."
"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. He also denied bringing Patton to the hearing as a human "prop" and said, "It's racist to suggest that I asked her to come in here for that reason."
The Senators Sanders and Feinstein letter said, in part:
Patton also bristled at Tlaib's suggestion. In a statement Wednesday on Facebook, she listed a number of her accomplishments before adding, "That is not the resume of a prop."
On Wednesday evening, the 2012 videos started to gain steam on social media.
"2012 is the time we're going to send Mr. Obama home to Kenya or wherever it is," Meadows said at a June 9, 2012 rally. "We're going to do it!" Three days later, he made a similar remark at a tea party event.
"Rep. Meadows used an African American woman yesterday as a token in his bashing of Michael Cohen who had the courage to speak out about Donald Trump," stated Ayesha K. Mustafaa, editor of the Muslim Journal. "Now more of Meadows' insensitive attitude toward African-Americans surface on tape."
Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore said Meadows was racist in a tweet linking to the video.
"The day of the angry, racist, white man is soon going to be a thing of the past, farewell," Moore added.
Tlaib said she stood by her assertion that the act of bringing Patton was racist but she said she was sorry if her comments appeared to indicate that she thought Meadows himself was a racist.