An MSNBC panel called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for "deeply racist" rhetoric about Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
At a press conference last week, Greene suggested that Bowman had physically intimidated her while the two verbally disagreed about gun violence.
"I feel threatened by him," she said. "I am very concerned about Jamal Bowman, and he's someone that people should watch."
MSNBC panelist Basil Smikle of Hunter College accused Greene of using "racial tropes."
"For her to talk about the physicality of Jamal Bowman, to continue to push, push through these racial tropes is very, very scary, because not only does it sort of run contrary to who we should be as a nation in terms of getting away from that, but it puts Jamal Bowman at risk of harm," Smikle said.
"But she was the one pumping her fist in the air, not Congressman Bowman," Republican strategist Susan Del Percio pointed out. "And what I also mean, I'll say it, that it's she's afraid of a big Black man. That's what she's trying to say."
As a tall Black man, Smikle said he had experienced people recoil from him.
"And I wish more people would call her out for it," he added. "But more people need to call it out because it is not only again, it is not only deeply, deeply racist, but it also puts individuals that are the targets of this at risk."
