'I misspoke': Republican claims 'colored people' comment was just a slip of the tongue

The Republican congressman who called Black people “colored people” on the house floor backtracked Friday, saying he simply “misspoke.”

Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) made the outburst during a hearing on an amendment he proposed to the defense budget that would bar the Pentagon from requiring training in “certain race-based concepts.”

“My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people or anybody can serve, okay?” he said. “It has nothing to do with color of your skin ... any of that stuff."

On Friday – and after harsh rebuke including from Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) who tweeted, “The GOP is not even hiding the racism anymore” – Crane claimed it had been a mistake made under pressure.

"In a heated floor debate on my amendment that would prohibit discrimination on the color of one's skin in the Armed Forces, I misspoke. Every one of us is made in the image of God and created equal," Crane said in a statement that was issued to CBS News.