I watched much of the hearing but not all of it. I missed the part where Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, pitched a fit about Cohen’s having said Trump is racist. The fit Meadows pitched was a remarkably dumb fit (and of course Trump is a racist).

Something curious happened about 90 minutes into the Michael Cohen testimony which transfixed much of Washington on Wednesday: A woman rose behind Rep. Mark Meadows as the North Carolina Republican grilled President Trump’s former fixer on his characterization of the president as a racist.

The woman — sunglasses affixed to her head, white cape draped over her shoulders — was Lynne Patton, longtime Trump family aide and an official at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Most important, for the cameras, she is African American.

“I asked Lynne to come today in her personal capacity to actually shed some light,” Meadows said.

Yep he said that.

Cohen said he knows her well, and Meadows launched on his absurd rant.

Meadows got to his point: “You made some very demeaning comments about the president that Ms. Patton doesn’t agree with. In fact, it has to do with your claim of racism. 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. How do you reconcile the two of those?”

Say what? What does Birmingham, Alabama have to do with it? I’m pretty sure there were plenty of racist white people there in the days of Bull Connor and I don’t suppose the number has dropped to zero now, so I’m not getting his drift, or Patton’s if it’s hers.

But even setting Birmingham aside…what the fuck? “Look, here is A Black Woman who works for Trump, therefore, sir, Trump cannot possibly be a racist.” One, yes he can, and two, we know he is. Birtherism. Shithole countries. His obsession with that one particular border. Good people on both sides. Birtherism. The Central Park 5. He was sued by the Feds for refusing to rent to black people back in the 70s. Birtherism. His indifference to Puerto Rico after the hurricane. The almost total whiteness of his administration. Birtherism. Telling April Ryan at his first press conference to make an appointment for him with the Congressional Black Caucus, having first asked her if they were friends of hers.

Patton’s unusual appearance during the hearing was immediately panned by black politicians and journalists.

“So . . . you bring out the president’s black employee. And say, see, how could he be racist? This is something,” tweeted Lena Tillett, a reporter at WRAL in Raleigh.

Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) said during the hearing that she, as a black person, has “endured the public comments of racism from the sitting president.”

“To prop up one member of our entire race of black people and say that that nullifies that is totally insulting,” Lawrence said.

“He brought out a black woman who is loyal to President Trump to prove that President Trump is not racist,” tweeted Yamiche Alcindor, White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour. “It was like show and tell. Incredible.”

Look look look, this one black person, therefore he is not racist.

At the end of the hearing Rashida Tlaib said using a black woman as a prop was racist and Meadows went ballistic.