GOP lawmaker put on spot on CNN over Trump's 'overtly racist' Obama post

CNN's John Berman put a Republican congressman on the spot about an "overtly racist" post President Donald Trump shared overnight.

The 79-year-old president shared a video created by the conservative Patriot News Outlet that had an image of Barack and Michelle Obama's smiling faces superimposed on the bodies of apes in a jungle, with a clip of the 1961 song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," by the Tokens, and the "CNN News Central" host challenged Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) to justify the post.

"Congressman, I want to ask you about a video that President Trump posted on Truth Social overnight," Berman said. "He's got millions of followers there. The video was about voter ID and election reform. But at the end, and I don't know if you can see this, it included a brief image of the Obamas, an overtly racist image of the former first lady and the president as apes here. Now, it was at the end of the video. I don't know for sure whether the president saw it, but is this the type of message a president of the United States, under any circumstance, should be sending out to millions of people?"

The lawmaker did not seem especially eager to comment on the president's post.

"Well, I've not seen that video to you, just showed it to me," Haridopolos said. "But what I've tried to do, and I tried to do it on your show today, the number one thing that we need to do is elevate the conversation. I want to have more transparency in government. So the reason, even though I'm a conservative, I come on CNN, let's have a thoughtful discussion about how we move forward in reforming our election systems. We have challenges overseas in Iran, and I hope we can elevate our debate in general in America, because what I saw recently this week in my own Financial Services Committee were Democrats yelling at our own secretary of the treasury because they're worried about losing a primary campaign."

Berman didn't let him off the hook that easily.

"And again, in the theme of elevating the discussion, and I know you weren't aware of that video, I don't think you were before," Berman said. "We just showed it to you. But should it remain on Truth Social? Is that the kind of thing, in the spirit of elevation, you would like to see the president take down?"

Haridopolos tried to scuttle away from the question.

"Well, I'll take a look at it right after our show," Haridopolos said. "You kind of threw it at me right here, but it's something again. What all I can control is what I can control. That's what my mom and dad taught me, and what I try to do is elevate the conversation. We had a great hearing, for example, this week with NASA, bipartisan support, making sure we're winning the space race. I'm proud to be on that committee, led by Dr. [Brian] Babin, and making sure that we are number one in space and we can have bipartisan cooperation on DHS as well, as you mentioned, with body cameras and more training. After all, we put it in the budget in the House already this year."