CNN commentator Keith Boykin compared the GOP lawmakers who disrupted the impeachment proceedings to “a Klan group” and then stood by the claim after facing pushback.
Republican lawmakers not on the committees involved in the testimony of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper demanded entry into the hearing but were denied Thursday.
Boykin made the comparison to the Ku Klux Klan during a Thursday afternoon appearance on The Lead with Jake Tapper.
“This is a disgraceful stunt,” he said. “This looked like a Klan group assembled outside of a jail trying to get the sheriff to let them in so they could deliver their own justice against somebody who was inside. It’s not a good look for our democracy. It’s not a good look for the Republican Party. … Republicans are already on these committees that are in this impeachment investigation.”
Tapper pushed back on the comparison moments later.
“Can I just say one thing to you, Keith, respectfully? I think the Klan metaphor was a little strong. I don’t want to get into a whole thing but earlier this week we were talking about lynching and using that word lightly. I’m not going to debate the history — ” the host stated.
Boykin responded, “I understand. I used it purposely, because I felt like it’s a visual problem, too, to have this group of almost all white men going in, in defense of the white man who already is, I think, by most accounts a racist, instead of dealing with the issue of how this person is abusing his powers as of the president of the United States.”
