A Republican congressman was left in a panic live on air when he was shown President Trump’s racist social media post about the Obamas.
Mike Haridopolos found himself without a paddle when CNN anchor John Berman made him look at a still from the vile video, which showed the faces of Barack and Michelle Obama superimposed onto the bodies of apes.
The Daily Beast has decided not to publish the video, which clearly plays on racist tropes and left Haridopolos freaking out in real time about how to balance that fact with Trump’s expectations of total loyalty from Republicans.
“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 Florida lawmaker hesitated and then tried to run off in another direction.
“Well, I’ve not seen that video until you just showed it to me, 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,” he said.
“I want to have more transparency in government. So 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.”
He then meandered into talking about Iran and Democratic primaries. But Berman returned to the video. “And again, in the theme of elevating the discussion,” he said. “And I know you weren’t aware of that video. I don’t think you were before 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, whose district includes Melbourne and Cape Canaveral on Florida’s east cost, tried to buy more time. “Well, I’ll take a look at it right after our show,” he said, before again trying desperately to change the subject. “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.”
Berman eventually threw in the towel.
The video was created by Xerias, the same anonymous Trumpy troll who created a video of the president in a fighter jet poop-bombing AI protesters at a No Kings protest last year.
The White House offered a jaw-dropping justification for posting the troll’s video.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
The video was but one of a torrent of at least 66 posts that the 79-year-old president shared between 10:36 p.m and 12:25 a.m.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Press Office denounced the video, posting on X, “Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
The Daily Beast has contacted a representative of Haridopolos for comment.
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