Meadows, Tlaib embrace on House floor after clash over race during Cohen hearing
Reps. Mark Meadows and Rashida Tlaib appear to put their differences aside after butting heads during Michael Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., appeared to put their differences aside on the floor of the House of Representatives Thursday, one day after they clashed bitterly over race during the late stages of Michael Cohen's appearance before the House Oversight Committee.
Meadows approached Tlaib and offered a hand as the House was taking its final votes for the week. She stood up, put a hand over her heart as she spoke to him, and then threw an arm around his shoulders as the two embraced and chatted for nearly a minute.
It was a notable contrast from Wednesday when Meadows and Tlaib butted heads after the Democrat implied Meadows was using a black female Trump administration official, Lynne Patton, as a "prop" to counter Cohen's claims that the president is racist.
"Just because someone has a person of color, a black person working for them, does not mean they aren’t racist," Tlaib said, "and it is insensitive that some would even say, the fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself."
LYNNE PATTON, OFFICIAL WHO SAT BEHIND MEADOWS AT COHEN HEARING, FIRES BACK AT TLAIB: 'NOT A PROP'
A visibly enraged and emotional Meadows asked committee chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to strike Tlaib's remarks from the record.
“My nieces and nephews are people of color. Not many people know that," Meadows said. "You know that, Mr. Chairman [Cummings]. And to indicate that I asked someone who is a personal friend of the Trump family, who has worked for him, who knows [Cohen], that she’s coming in to be a prop -- it's racist to suggest that I asked her to come in here for that reason."
Cummings, who is African-American and described Meadows as one of his "best friends" later in the hearing, asked Tlaib to "rephrase" her remarks and make clear that she was not referring to Meadows as racist. She denied doing so, but said she was "trying as a person of color just to express myself and how I felt at that moment."
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Tlaib added that "was not my intention" to single out Meadows, "and I do apologize if that's what it sounded like." In an appearance on CNN Thursday, the freshman congresswoman said she meant "no disrespect" to Patton and said she should be "commended for her work in the administration."
"She said she didn't mean it yesterday, so there was no need to apologize," Meadows said on Thursday after the pair hugged it out.
Fox News' Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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