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Politico, Twitter Liberals Spread Video Falsely Implying GOP Rep Made Racist Joke

Jenniffer González-Colón / YouTube Screenshot
March 22, 2018

Reporters and liberal activists spread a misleading clip of an Alabama Republican this week, falsely claiming he made a racist joke about a colleague.

During a congressional hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) response to the disaster in Puerto Rico, Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico Jenniffer González-Colón yielded back her time to the chair, who then called on Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.).

"Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Long, good to have you here," Rogers said to FEMA administrator Brock Long. "It’s refreshing to finally have a witness that doesn’t have an accent before this committee."

Rogers was making a joke in reference to Long, a North Carolina native who has a similar Southern drawl to himself. But when the video went viral after being posted by Politico, Twitter users implied Rogers was mocking González, who was not a witness.

González herself took to Twitter to call out the Latino Rebels account and say she was not the target of the joke. The account doubled down.

Eventually Politico deleted the video. "A video of Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), mistakenly published on March 16, has been removed because his remarks about a witness’ accent were not in reference to Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, as the headline had suggested," the link now reads.