Yes, we are in the dumbest timeline; yes, the Trump administration seems to have more endings than the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King; yes, T-Pain somehow beat Gladys Knight on a singing competition; no, I do not understand how. But at least we have this. Behold this photo of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib simmering, smoldering, glowering, and empowering as they awaited their turns to expertly question Michael Cohen (and in Pressley and Tlaib's cases, to also call out an offensive tactic used by a colleague with a history of similar actions). This photo, taken by Chip Somodevilla for Getty, has absolutely no right to be this good. Out here looking like Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Category is: Giving me Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I did not need coffee this morning, I just stared at these three congresspeople, eyeing Michael Cohen, and I snap, crackle, popped right out of bed and into the day. Give this photo the Pulitzer Prize and also paint it on a mural and also tattoo it on my ribs right now. Put this on the money; issue a new three dollar bill and instead of e pluribus unum write don't start none, there won't be none. Ah! This photo! Chip Somodevilla Getty Images Whatever this album is I'm buying it. This is the look you get when, as Whitney says, "if six of y'all had dinner, four of you were really cheap." Giphy That photo is my bills, my brunch habit, and my full Fenty Beauty shopping cart staring at my paycheck. That photo is the other, better versions of me I want to greet me in the Spiderverse. I was hesitant about the live-action Lion King before but after seeing this production still of Sarabi and her crew, I'm all in. This is that look you get when folks get along a little too well at the parent-teacher conference and they join forces to cancel your badass 5th grade self. This is Ariana Grande's three singles looking at the Billboard charts. This is a pop group called Checks & Balances. This photo is an illustration of three ways to deliver the line "You really thought." Put this—and I cannot stress this enough—in the Louvre. This is a photo of the concepts of Kind, Smart, and Important coming for the little girl in The Help. Giphy I feel every mood in the photo deeply. AOC's "Oh, for real!" raised eyebrow. Ayanna Pressley's "Oh, for real?" sly smirk. And Rashida Tlaib's "Oh. For real." grimace. This is photo is a journey. Can anyone hear Ride of the Valkyries? Just me. That's fine. Pictured: Viola Davis' Oscar, Emmy, and Tony(s) contemplating an award-winning audiobook performance. This is also a picture of other people's Instagrams, cold winter light, and regular old existential dread zeroing in on my mental health. Additionally, this image is Russian Doll, The Good Place, and Tidying Up with Marie Kondo descending on the part of me that wants to be a better human. Finally, photographic representation of the three members of Hanson attacking my prepubescent understanding of attraction. Chip Somodevilla Getty Images When I look at this I see Solange's album, Solange's album, and Solange's album riding in to rescue this trash fire of a week. Let's also take a moment to pay homage to Ayanna Pressley's consistently excellent incredulity game. "I don’t know about that one, Chief." NurPhoto Getty Images "I must be a watchmaker, because I have time today!" NurPhoto Getty Images "What you want to do is not necessarily what you’re going to do." NurPhoto Getty Images If we're going to be in the most shocking, most annoying, and most relentlessly tweeted time, at least we have some representatives who are trying to guide us toward the light and whose facials expressions communicate just how not about the BS they really are. I've never felt more represented. Get Eric Reads the News in your inbox! Sign up for ELLE.com's newsletter to receive exclusive content every Friday. SUBSCRIBE R. Eric Thomas R Eric Thomas is a Senior Staff Writer at ELLE.com, home of his daily humor column "Eric Reads the News," which skewers politics, pop culture, celebrity shade, and schadenfreude. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 27: U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks during a hearing as Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, testifies before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill February 27, 2019 in Washington, DC. Last year Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine for tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, unlawful excessive campaign contributions and lying to Congress as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections. Photo : Alex Wong/Getty Images White people don’t need black folk to comfort them and their white tears. U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings apparently didn’t get the memo. Advertisement During Michael Cohen’s congressional hearing Wednesday, GOP Representative Mark Meadows pushed back against the former Trump lawyer’s assertions that President Donald Trump is racist. He did so by trotting out Lynne Patton, his token black person and Trump appointee. “She says that as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was racist,” Meadows told Cohen, as if racist white people can’t be cool with one Negro while being anti-black to others. Later in the hearing, Tlaib correctly took Meadows to task . “Just because someone has a person of color, a black person, working for them does not mean that they aren’t racist,” Tlaib said to Meadows. “And it is insensitive ... the fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself.” Meadows cried a river of white tears, suggesting Tlaib called him racist—she didn’t—and then said that his nephews and nieces were people of color. This compelled Cummings to make a very big mistake: to cuddle Meadows’ fragile white feelings. Calling Meadows “one of my best friends” and saying that he didn’t believe Tlaib was calling him racist, Cummings asked Tlaib for clarity. In return, the congresswoman apologized if Meadows took her thoughts the wrong way. In effect, Cummings indirectly positioned Tlaib as the wrong party—not Meadows, even though he tried to protect a well-documented racist president by using Patton’s black face as cover. Advertisement Cummings failed Tlaib. It was disheartening and disappointing to watch. This was a seminal moment in U.S. political history for several reasons. It’s rare that a black person chairs the Oversight Committee, one of the most powerful on Capitol Hill. Making Cummings’ position more consequential are the times in which we find ourselves. House Democrats have extraordinary power to investigate Trump’s possible criminal acts during the 2016 election. To boot, a record-breaking number of women of color elected during the 2018 primaries made way for three of them (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Tlaib) to be appointed to the Oversight committee that yesterday questioned Cohen, the person who knows more about Trump than most. Advertisement Cohen outlined some of Trump’s racist behavior over the years, which is crucial to understanding the type of head of state who’s running our country into the shitter. With a black man presiding over the hearing and Democrats in control of the House, it is crucial that the issue of race and how it affects our democracy be taken head-on, and those who are elected to call truth to power must be given space to do so. Tlaib called truth to power by challenging Meadows’ faulty assertion that a white person’s black friend or colleague absolves him from being racist. Cummings undermined Tlaib in doing so, and here’s why. For starters, if a person is accused of being or doing something racist, that person should at least be able to stand on their own merits and refute the charge. Meadows didn’t and instead used one of the oldest tricks in the white supremacist handbook: pull out the token Negro and take cover behind them. But that didn’t seem to offend Cummings. No, the “grandson of sharecroppers,” as he called himself—as if all black people don’t have sharecroppers somewhere in their family tribes—seemed to react more sensitively to Meadows’ fragile white man feelings than a woman of color who felt offended by the racist act of tokenizing a black woman. Advertisement Reminder: Tlaib is from Detroit, one the biggest, black cities in the U.S., so she would be just as sensitive as anyone to how black women can be used for political theater. Indeed, a Palestinian woman did what a descendant of sharecroppers failed to do: defend a black woman against Meadows’ tokenization of her agency. And I wonder if Cummings was as concerned about Barack Obama back in 2012 when his “best friend” said that the nation’s first black president should go back “home to Kenya or wherever it is.” Advertisement Tlaib can’t say it, so I will: Fuck Mark Meadows and his mayonnaise-ass white tears. Black women have long demanded that the Democratic Party support black women for elected office and this 2018 cycle produced the most diverse class of congresswomen in the country’s history. But it appears the party is ill-equipped to handle what it means to have outspoken women of color in their ranks. Ocasio-Cortez has been criticized by people within her own party for being too outspoken. Pressley made news for using her first speech on the House floor to call out Trump and his kleptocratic administration. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whom the Democratic Party has done a horrible job of supporting publicly, was forced to apologize for highlighting legitimate concerns over AIPAC’s role in lobbying Congress for favorable policies towards Israel’s anti-Palestine government. Advertisement Cummings’ handling of Tlaib yesterday is part of a larger problem the Democratic Party has with this new class of women of color: Democrats want women of color in Congress, but they can’t seem to handle their truth-telling. I do not believe Cummings meant to underline Tlaib, nor do I believe this is a major blow to his character. But he messed up and needs to apologize to Tlaib nonetheless—publicly.<doc-sep>Cummings negotiated a calm finish that kept the focus of the hearing on Cohen’s allegations against Trump. By Thursday morning, as House votes ended for the week, Meadows left his usual seat near the center aisle to approach Tlaib. “I went over to her and said, ‘Listen, thank you for the gracious way that you handled it.’ And I just wanted her to know that there is no animosity or hard feelings at all, she said the same, and it was just a very good moment,” Meadows told reporters afterward. The two lawmakers hugged and spoke for a few minutes, their first real conversation ever. The detente might never have happened if not for Cummings and his unique friendship with Meadows<doc-sep>Associated Press Washington — Two lawmakers who clashed bitterly over race have hugged it out on the House floor. Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Democrat Rashida Tlaib of Detroit embraced and chatted for almost a minute Thursday. "Congressman Mark Meadows came up to me and said that I had been gracious in our exchange yesterday, and we had a conversation about what transpired," Tlaib said in a statement. "I appreciate his action on the House floor today and look forward to working with all of my colleagues to ensure we are working on behalf of all of our constituents." It was a striking sight after the pair fought during Michael Cohen’s hearing a day earlier. There, Meadows tried to rebut the charge by Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer, that Trump is a racist. Behind Meadows stood a longtime Trump family friend and employee, Lynne Patton, who is black. Meadows said Patton would not work for anyone racist. Tlaib suggested Meadows’ use of Patton as a “prop” was itself racist, but later said she was not accusing Meadows of being a racist. On Thursday, Meadows approached Tlaib on the House floor and offered a hand. She stood, put a hand over her heart as she spoke to him, and then threw an arm around his shoulders as the two embraced. “She said she didn’t mean it yesterday, so there was no need to apologize,” Meadows said afterward on Thursday. The upheaval came at the end of a day-long hearing in which Cohen testified that, among other things, Trump said black people are “too stupid” to vote for him. Meadows, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in Congress, said he’s never heard the president say anything racist. At one point, Patton, who now works at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, stood behind him. Meadows said she would not work for anyone racist. Tlaib, the last member to speak, made her remarks about Meadows’ move and the two got into a disagreement over what she meant. Meadows said he has nieces and nephews who are African American. House Oversight committee Chairman Elijah Cummings got them to settle down and urged Tlaib to clarify that she was not calling Meadows a racist. The embrace happened after Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox issued a Thursday statement that criticized Tlaib's attack on Meadows. "Yesterday in a blatant attempt to silence a political opponent, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib made baseless accusations of racism against a fellow member of Congress," Cox said. "This shameful and slanderous act is sadly another example of how Congresswoman Tlaib would rather impress democratic socialist radicals with inflammatory rhetoric, rather than get something done for the people of Michigan. It’s time that Rashida Tlaib realize that she is now servant of the people and no longer a professional progressive bomb thrower.” The newly elected Cox should be busy "evaluating the failed policies of her party that have led Michigan in the wrong direction and the harmful rhetoric and actions of the leader of her party, President Donald Trump," Tlaib spokesman Denzel McCampbell said. "Congresswoman Tlaib is working on behalf of her constituents on issues such as environmental justice with the Green New Deal, health care with Medicare for All, credit scoring in relation to high auto insurance, and much more," McCampbell said. "She’s doing her job and holding folks accountable, including in her capacity on the House Oversight Committee. Laura Cox should do her job and help Michiganders and stop with the fear-mongering rhetoric." The Detroit News contributed<doc-sep>
Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., appeared to put their differences aside on the floor of the House of Representatives Thursday, one day after they clashed bitterly over race during the late stages of Michael Cohen's appearance before the House Oversight Committee. Meadows approached Tlaib and offered a hand as the House was taking its final votes for the week. She stood up, put a hand over her heart as she spoke to him, and then threw an arm around his shoulders as the two embraced and chatted for nearly a minute. It was a notable contrast from Wednesday when Meadows and Tlaib butted heads after the Democrat implied Meadows was using a black female Trump administration official, Lynne Patton, as a "prop" to counter Cohen's claims that the president is racist. "Just because someone has a person of color, a black person working for them, does not mean they aren’t racist," Tlaib said, "and it is insensitive that some would even say, the fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself." LYNNE PATTON, OFFICIAL WHO SAT BEHIND MEADOWS AT COHEN HEARING, FIRES BACK AT TLAIB: 'NOT A PROP' A visibly enraged and emotional Meadows asked committee chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to strike Tlaib's remarks from the record. “My nieces and nephews are people of color. Not many people know that," Meadows said. "You know that, Mr. Chairman [Cummings]. And to indicate that I asked someone who is a personal friend of the Trump family, who has worked for him, who knows [Cohen], that she’s coming in to be a prop -- it's racist to suggest that I asked her to come in here for that reason." CNN'S DON LEMON PRAISES TLAIB FOR HITTING MEADOWS: SHE'S 'PROBABLY MORE IN TOUCH WITH THE PEOPLE' THAN CONGRESS Cummings, who is African-American and described Meadows as one of his "best friends" later in the hearing, asked Tlaib to "rephrase" her remarks and make clear that she was not referring to Meadows as racist. She denied doing so, but said she was "trying as a person of color just to express myself and how I felt at that moment." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Tlaib added that "was not my intention" to single out Meadows, "and I do apologize if that's what it sounded like." In an appearance on CNN Thursday, the freshman congresswoman said she meant "no disrespect" to Patton and said she should be "commended for her work in the administration." "She said she didn't mean it yesterday, so there was no need to apologize," Meadows said on Thursday after the pair hugged it out. Fox News' Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.