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Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Yvette Clarke said the video that was posted to President Donald Trump’s social media account and later deleted Friday was intended to harm, as she criticized the White House’s response to the uproar.
Clarke spoke to The Associated Press after the video was removed. She said, “It’s very clear that there was an intent to harm people, to hurt people, with this video,” adding, “As my mother would say, ‘Too late. Mercy’s gone,’” in remarks included in an edited transcript of her interview.
The AP reported that the White House offered shifting responses after the video appeared, including initially dismissing “fake outrage,” then deleting the post and blaming a staff member. Trump later told reporters Friday, “I didn’t make a mistake,” according to the AP account, and he said he did not see what part of the video depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle before the post went up.
Asked by AP whether she accepted the White House explanation that an aide made a mistake, Clarke said, “They don’t tell the truth.” She said that if there were not a “climate, a toxic and racist climate within the White House,” the behavior would not happen regardless of who she said it came from, arguing that the episode reflected a broader pattern in the administration.
Clarke also addressed what she said was the absence of contact between the White House and the Congressional Black Caucus. She told AP, “There has been no outreach from the White House,” and said the outreach “has to happen prior to these type of juvenile antics.”
When asked by AP about Republican criticism that rose quickly Friday, Clarke said the timing was not lost on her community or on her colleagues, linking the rapid backlash to elections approaching. She said lawmakers who chose to align themselves with what she called “really profane imagery” were “throwing their lot in with an individual who has shown himself to be a disgrace,” as AP reported in the transcript.
On the question of what Trump’s decision to retract the post indicated, Clarke told AP that she thought the action reflected “more of a political expediency than it is any moral compass.” She repeated, “Too late. Mercy’s gone,” and said the administration had an opportunity to change course but that, in her view, Trump is “hardwired this way.”
Clarke said she hoped the White House could contain the harm she said the post was doing. She told AP, “There are Black children who are listening to their president,” and said they are seeing what she said Trump posts on Truth Social, which she said could affect how they view leadership in their country. She also said, “As a democracy, we have to stand up together against this type of racism, this type of bigotry, this kind of hatred” and returned to the intent she said was evident in the video, saying it was “very clear” it was meant to harm because she said it remained up for 12 hours.
Barrow reported from Atlanta.