New York Republican congressman Mike Lawler said alleged images of him in blackface dressed as singer Michael Jackson were meant to be the “sincerest form of flattery.”
Lawler—who is running for re-election in New York’s 17th District against Mondaire Jones, who is a Black former congressman—did not deny the authenticity of the photos in a Thursday statement, reported the New York Times. However, Lawler did attempt to clean up the intention behind them.
“The ugly practice of blackface was the furthest thing from my mind,” Lawler, who identifies as white, told the Times. “Let me be clear, this is not that.”
The newspaper reported that Lawler, 38, had to be around 20 years old when the photos were taken during a campus Halloween gathering at the private Manhattan University in 2006. Someone who appears to be Lawler is shown dressed similarly to Jackson, in a black shirt and red jacket, with visibly darkened skin. A person familiar with the costume told the Times that Lawler allegedly used bronzer from a female classmate to tint his skin.
Lawler claimed that the costume was “a genuine homage to my musical hero since I was a little kid trying to moonwalk through my mom’s kitchen.” And this isn’t the first time that Lawler’s love of the late King of Pop has become a talking point.
But rest assured, Lawler campaign spokesperson Chris Russell confirmed that the freshman congressman is, in fact, a Jackson fan.
“It’s true that Congressman Lawler—who is known to have performed the Moonwalk once or twice—is a fan of Michael Jackson’s music and even attended one of his last concerts at Madison Square Garden in 2001,” Lawler’s spokesperson Chris Russell told the Daily Beast last year.
Lawler has also even been touted as an MJ “expert” by one Jackson biographer, who recalled how “disgusted” Lawler had been with the 2015 allegations against Jackson in the book, Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story.
However, Lawler’s political opponent, Jones, has called his behavior “disgusting and disqualifying” for “refusing to stand up to Donald Trump’s dangerous antisemitic behavior and remarks,” he wrote in a September Facebook post.
“It shows he doesn’t actually care about combating antisemitism if he feels there’s no political benefit to him,” said Jones, who has so far not addressed Lawler’s alleged blackface.
The Daily Beast could not reach the Jones campaign for comment.
