Georgia state Rep. Erica Thomas says ‘I’m not backtracking’ on claims of racist confrontation

The man, Eric Sparkes, claimed that Thomas was using him to manipulate a political stunt and that he was in no way ‘racist,’ as Thomas had alleged. Sparkes, an outspoken Democrat of Cuban heritage, admitted that he did confront the pregnant lawmaker in anger after she violated the store policy of bringing too many items to the express checkout lane, but never told her to “go back” to where she came from.

Later that day, Thomas appeared to backtrack on her story as she told reporters that she couldn’t remember exactly what Sparkes had said to her in the confrontation.

She recounted, “I don’t know if he said ‘go back,’ or those types of words … I don’t know if he said ‘go back to your country’ or ‘go back to where you came from,’ but he was making those types of references is what I remember.”

When a reporter directly asked Thomas if she remembered what the man said to her in the confrontation, she said, “No, no, definitely not. But I know it was ‘go back’ because I know I told him to ‘go back.'”

In a Monday morning press conference with her attorney, however, Thomas claimed that she was not backing down from her original claim that a racist Sparkes had told her to “go back to where she came from.”

“He said, ‘Go back where you came from!’ … and after that, he kept harassing me.” She said. “I was embarrassed, and I was scared for my life.”