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‘Y’all trippin’: Jamaal Bowman shuts down CNN questioning him on heckling George Santos

May 20, 2023 | | Print Article

Highly volatile “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) bristled when he was confronted over his boorish behavior, going off on CNN’s Erin Burnett who pressed him on his heckling of embattled GOP Rep. George Santos (R-NY) at the Capitol earlier this week.

Bowman, whose childish shouting down of Santos led to a heated confrontation with House colleague, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) that drew headlines after she accused the ticking human time bomb of menacing her, reacted negatively to being put on the spot by the CNN anchor during Friday’s edition of “OutFront” where he accused her of using a racial trope for daring to question his unbecoming conduct.

With Bowman’s lack of self-control becoming a pattern that is no longer possible to simply ignore, Burnett asked if he regretted shouting at Santos, with his reaction showing that the congressman seems to believe that he is beyond reproach as a member of a protected demographic of which any criticism is portrayed as being racist.

(Video: YouTube/CNN)

“Congressman, when you look at that, do you have any regrets for doing that?” Burnett asked after a video of the incident at the Capitol was played for viewers. “For yelling at him in that way?”

‘No!” Bowman shouted. “Come on now, come on now, CNN, y’all trippin’ now.”

“Listen, that was–first of all he should resign or be expelled because of the laws that he is being accused of breaking, the violations, and lying to constituents,” he said. “That’s number one. But number two, is heckling like a horrible, evil thing?”

“Is teasing someone, is friendly banter a horrible evil thing?” Bowman asked.

“Like come on y’all, let’s, everybody needs to lighten up and understand that one, in a healthy democracy, dialogue and debate is essential,” he added, playing the “D” card.

The New York Democrat then went to the race card.

“Number two, why even frame a question in that way because that feeds into the trope that…,” seeming to suggest that the anchor was portraying him as an angry black man.

That must have done the trick because Burnett was eating out of his hand for the rest of the segment.

Following his confrontation with Greene, she told reporters that she felt intimidated over the second time that the much larger man had thrown his weight around and expressed her opinion that being smeared as a “white supremacist” was the equivalent of a black person being called the N-word.

Greene also described Bowman’s actions toward her as “aggressive” and that “he’s someone that people should watch,” suggesting that he may strike out violently, as he nearly did when he accosted Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) inside of the Capitol in March.

How did Bowman react? By playing the victim and claiming that Greene was endangering him because of his skin color.

“I think it’s a fair question and here’s why. Dialogue and debate, I hear you. Wanting him to resign, I hear you. But yelling at him to resign when he’s talking at reporters is, in terms of decorum and behavior, is a different thing, which is fine if you think it’s ok. But I think it’s a fair question,” Burnett said in defending her question rather than calling out Bowman’s shameless reaction.

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Chris Donaldson
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