'Sure can get a laugh': GOP congresswoman defends Trump's 'racist' posts

A Republican lawmaker defended President Donald Trump's social media posts depicting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a handlebar mustache and sombrero.

The president posted AI-generated video showing Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outside the White House, with mariachi music playing in the background, and then another featuring four depictions of the himself playing mariachi music as the Democratic minority leader speaks.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer challenged Rep. Lisa McClain (R-NY) to justify the posts Wednesday.

"I just want to quickly get your reaction," Blitzer said. "President Trump posted a second AI-altered video on social media depicting the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, wearing a sombrero with a mustache. Jeffries has slammed the post and, his word, called it racist. Is this appropriate, an appropriate thing to do for the president of the United States to be issuing a post like this? Should he take the videos down and formally apologize to the minority leader?"

The New York Republican argued the president was simply making a joke based on his inaccurate claim that Democrats refused to support a government funding bill because it did not pay for health care for undocumented migrants.

"Listen, the president surecan get a laugh and get a riseout of the Democrats with hissocial media," McClain said. "I don't thinkthat's anything new to toanybody. What is sad in thissituation is what the Democratsare doing, though, and where the Democrats need to apologize,quite frankly, is that they'reholding the American peoplehostage."

Blitzer also challenged her to defend Trump's suggestion that he would use American cities as "training grounds" for the U.S. military, and she sidestepped the question.

"Listen, I wish we didn't even have to talk about this, right," McClain said. "I wish we had law and order in all of our cities. I wish, you know, there weren't criminals that committed crimes 34 times and still continue to get let out to cause drastic damage. Unfortunately, that's the situation that we're in, and we're looking at all options to make our cities safer. You know, just take a look at what happened in D.C. when when President Trump deployed the national guard to D.C.

"I mean, my daughter, who's 22, actually could ride the metro for the first time since she's been here in D.C. I don't want to be talking about this, Wolf. We need to get back to law and order. Law and order should be a bipartisan issue, and to put the safety and security of Americans first. That's truly where the conversation needs to go."

She was not asked to explain why her daughter was unable to ride the metro, as millions of others do every day.

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