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A detailed House race in New York was rocked by an October shock when pictures surfaced of the incumbent Republican congressman in blackface as a part of a Halloween costume years in the past.
Rep. Michael Lawler, R-N.Y., who’s white, is pictured dressed like pop sensation Michael Jackson, full with bronzer to darken his face in an October 2006 picture reported by the New York Times. Lawler doesn’t dispute the picture’s authenticity and has issued an apology to anybody who has taken offense, although he stated it was not his intention to decorate in blackface.
“As has been well-documented – most not too long ago by the Daily Beast – I used to be a so-called ‘Super Fan’ of Michael Jackson, a lot in order that I used to be talked about by title in his biography for my outspoken assist of him and the Jackson Family. I liked Michael’s music, was awed by him as a performer, and by his impression on popular culture,” Lawler stated in an announcement. “One of my biggest recollections is attending his live performance at Madison Square Garden earlier than his premature dying.
“When trying to mimic Michael’s legendary dance strikes at a university Halloween party eighteen years in the past, the ugly apply of black face was the furthest factor from my thoughts. Let me be clear, this isn’t that. Rather, my costume was meant because the sincerest type of flattery, a real homage to one in every of my childhood idols since I used to be a bit child making an attempt to moonwalk by means of my mother’s kitchen.
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Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., talks with reporters after a gathering of the House Republican Conference within the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc by way of Getty Images)
“I’m a pupil of historical past and for anybody who takes offense to the picture, I’m sorry. All you are able to do is stay and study, and I respect everybody’s grace alongside the best way,” he stated.
The 38-year-old Lawler, a reasonable first-term lawmaker from the Hudson Valley, is seen as a rising star within the GOP convention who’s operating for re-election in a suburban swing district. His Democratic opponent in New York’s seventeenth Congressional District is former Rep. Mondaire Jones, a Black man. The Jones marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Photos present Rep. Michael Lawler pictured in October 2005, dressed as pop star Michael Jackson full with bronzer to darken his face. Lawler didn’t dispute the authenticity of the pictures. (Published by the New York Times)
The race is one in every of 22 toss-up contests which will effectively decide which party controls the House of Representatives subsequent yr, based on Fox News’ Power Rankings.
Lawler is just not the primary politician to be wrapped up in latest controversy over a fancy dress that resembled blackface. Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, confronted calls to resign after a photograph from his medical faculty yearbook surfaced which pictured males in Ku Klux Klan robes and blackface. Northam denied he was within the picture however admitted he as soon as used shoe polish to darken his face for a dance contest within the Eighties during which he too dressed like Jackson.
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Lawler is up towards former Rep. Mondaire Jones. (Getty Images)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau additionally confronted controversy in 2019 when pictures surfaced of him sporting blackface in 2001. The prime minister stated in an interview after the truth that he couldn’t give a definitive quantity on how many occasions he had worn blackface.
Lawler was photographed in his Jackson costume in New York City when he was a sophomore at Manhattan College, now Manhattan University, a Catholic faculty within the Bronx the place solely three % of the scholar inhabitants is Black, based on the New York Times.
Lawler, who was class valedictorian in 2009, was well-known for his love of Michael Jackson, the paper reported.
When Lawler was a highschool senior in 2005, he flew from New York to California to attend elements Jackson’s legal trial. The musician had confronted allegations of molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Neverland Ranch, although Jackson was finally acquitted.
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Michael Jackson performing “Thriller” on stage at Madison Square Garden as a part of his Bad Tour in 1988. (George De Sota (ID 5073478)/Redferns)
Jackson biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli recounted in his e-book how he helped get Lawler into the courtroom, based on the Daily Beast. Taraborrelli wrote in “Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story” that the teenager had been “so disgusted” by testimony towards Jackson “that he could not assist however mutter one thing derogatory underneath his breath.”
In Taraborrelli’s account, Lawler was overheard by courtroom officers and “tossed proper out of the courtroom.”
The pictures in query had been posted to Facebook and depict Lawler wearing a jacket harking back to the one Jackson wore within the “Thriller” music video.
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The New York Times cited an individual accustomed to the costume who stated that Lawler had used bronzer borrowed from feminine classmates to darken his pores and skin.
Lawler’s 2022 victory was one in every of a number of Republican victories in essential New York districts, regardless of the state’s standing as reliably blue general. The seventeenth contains stretches by means of 4 suburban counties exterior of New York City: Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Emily Robertson contributed to this report.
