'Shame on the Republican Party’: CNN analyst roasts Freedom Caucus chairman for pattern of ‘racist’ actions

Perhaps the biggest sideshow in today's Congressional hearing featuring Michael Cohen involved Republican Mark Meadows (R-NC) going at it with Democrat Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) regarding alleged racism. Accordingly, CNN's Don Lemon had a panel on Wednesday night to discuss the dust-up between the two House members.

"First of all -- and we shouldn't have to still say this in 2019 -- the theory that President Obama was not born in the United States of America is racist," said CNN contributor Wesley Lowery, in reference to 2012 'birther' remarks made by Meadows and resurfaced Wednesday by social media users after the heated exchange in Congress between Meadows and Tlaib. "It was peddled by racists, it was racist when Donald Trump did it before he was even a candidate, and it was racist when he did it as a candidate," Lowery continued.

Then CNN political commentator Tara Setmayer got in on the action, saying "shame on the Republican Party for doing this over and over again."

"This was a frustration I had as a woman of color in the Republican Party for 20 years now, trying to get them to get past these kinds of racially tokenized acts," she said of Meadow's comments today. "They think that this is what shows they are not racists and they aren't bigots, but it's racially insensitive and they don't have anybody in decision-making positions to know, that's not how it works."

"Mark Meadows doing something racist, getting called on it by a woman of color, and then him being offended at the suggestion....the white guy feeling really upset that someone might think he might have done something," Meadows then added.

"Well it flows from the top," Setmayer said in response.

Watch the segment below.