Discussion: Tlaib Dials Back Meadows Criticism, Says She Meant 'No Disrespect' To Patton

I like her forthrightness, but she needs to be sure the brain is engaged before putting the mouth into gear.

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When slavery officially ended, plantation owners hired many former slaves via sharecropping. Does this mean they were not racist anymore? Or does it mean that the blacks were needed to serve a purpose?

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She really doesn’t seem to understand that “dialing back” her words, on multiple occasions, isn’t a good look. I’m not saying that her forthrightness at calling things what they are isn’t needed at times. I’m saying that if she is going to “speak truth to power”. own it. Stop explaining afterwards what she really meant, etc.

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Meadows isn’t racist? Please, Rep. Tlaib! Stop doing the brown acid!

Oh, and why are you defending Patton? “Extreme leadership” and “her work in the HUD organization”? WTF? Patton is an incompetent grifter who was only hired because she was willing to kiss Trump’s ass.

Stop apologizing for these fucking miscreants, Rep. Tlaib. Besides, Mark Meadows probably refers to you as a Muslim terrorist.

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This one has to either stop with the apologies or stop saying shit she won’t stand by. Otherwise it’s just sloppy and distracting

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I can’t remember–did Tlaib bring it up or was she responding to Meadows’ using her as a prop? If she was responding, then it seems reasonable to question the intent of his actions. Either way, she needs to be more circumspect. She can be subtle and still get the point across. In fact, given her record of having to walk back what she says, she must be more subtle and thoughtful about her words.

Was just gonna post that video myself. Glad you caught that. She has nothing to apologize for. Its all about the comity that Cummings was trying to maintain without getting sidetracked, but Meadows’ antics come across as pure ‘comedy’ instead, since it was such a ham-handed way of trying to prove tRump wasn’t a racist. All Meadows did is prove that he’s one, and for all to see. The whole thing fell flat on its face, using a woman of color like she was staged prop.

So many of the GOP fuckers are like this, such bigots. Pick a group that isn’t white, male and Xtian and they’ve probably said something bigoted and offensive to pander to their base, or to get them to vote for them. Its gotten to be so routine among them that its like a rite of passage into joining or being looked upon favorably by GOP now.

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Someone should ask Meadows: “Can you think of anyone who doesn’t believe Trump is a racist and is not a person of color? Did it ever occur to you to ask one of them?” Because if the answers are yes, and no, then he was using her as a prop. That’s a racist action.

I understand why people like Meadows don’t want to admit it (or maybe he doesn’t understand it), but it’s possible to hate Black, Hispanic, Muslim, or Gay people, while also liking certain Black, Hispanic, Muslim, and Gay persons.

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I’ll say he’s racist. Most of the country weighing in thinks he was being racist yesterday.

Good lord folks. This letting right wing Republican outrage run the conversation was never a good approach and I thought we were starting to learn not to do it anymore.

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Mark Meadows was, is and will be racist.

He is also good at Lindsey Grahaming

He was also overjoyed to act all indignant and had it not been for some tap-dancing (well done and appreciated by me) by Cummings, he would have shifted the entire narrative of the Hearing from Cohen to the victimization that his entire Hearing performance demonstrated for all to see.

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Exactly. Tlaib needs some lessons from AOC on how to be effective.

Why waste your breath apologizing to Meadows? Thank God Cummings is an effective chairman who kept the hearing from going completely off the rails. Meadows, Jordan, and other GOP members had nothing to offer except platitudes. They weren’t interested in justice; they only cared about how they looked to their constituents back home. I only wished there was more questioning along the lines of what AOC did: get to the heart of the matter of why Cohen was there in the first place.

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Slaves were charged with breastfeeding and raising white children. They were “employees,” trusted friends, lovers, and rape victims of whites. Men like Thomas Jefferson couldn’t even be bothered to free their own children. Slaves were involved in every aspect of white people’s lives and yet slaveholders were still violently racist. The problem is that too many people in this country think someone can’t be racist as long as they have even one black person they like, but that’s not at all what racism is.

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Also not that this should even have to be pointed out but trying to prove that Trump can’t be racist because he knows a black employee is bad enough and a discredited, failed argument, but Meadows parading this woman around and having her stand awkwardly behind him as a prop at a Congressional hearing was what was seen as the particularly racist part in this case.

A commentator I heard on MSNBC yesterday who’s a POC said it made her think of someone standing on an auction block. It was utterly demeaning.

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Another video has already come out of Meadows using the exact same “back to Kenya” line at a Q&A.

Seems it wasn’t just an off the cuff gaffe but rather an intentional and repeated campaign talking point for him.

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Unlike you, Rep. Tlaib, I MEAN every word of disrespect towards Patton, and I am NEVER going to apologize for doing so.

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What a despicable fuck he is. That shit-eating grin Meadows gets when his yahoo constituent starts on Obama not being an American citizen. If Tlaib had any sense she would take back her apology after seeing this video.

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OK, I hate to keep going after one of our own, but this just shows how stupid and naïve Rep. Tlaib’s walk-back concerning Meadows and Patton was. Lynne Patton was on FoxNews saying that Tlaib is the “real racist”, which is something that everyone here on TPM and their grandparents knew would happen:

Stop apologizing for calling these GOP the motherfuckers that they are! You do not apologize for telling the truth!

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So yesterday she fled her post for “mandatory meetings” in DC - aka standing awkwardly behind Mark Meadows, and today she’s on Fox News.

Great leadership indeed.

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