Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is not here for GOP Rep. Nancy Mace’s accusations of flirting with her.
The accusations follow an argument where Dyson checked Mace about how to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name. After being corrected on the spelling of the Democratic nominee for president’s name, Mace, declared she would say Harris’ name “any way that I want to” during a panel discussion on CNN.
On Thursday’s congressional hearing, the Congresswoman from South Carolina, shared private messages from CNN guest Michael Eric Dyson.
In a video clip, Mace is seen holding a screenshot of texts that allegedly claimed Dyson called her “gorgeous” during the exchange. “Then the guy says I’m gorgeous in all these photos. I don’t think he’s that bent out of shape on how anyone pronounces Kamala. And if we’re going to have that standard, you got to hold it to both sides, not just one or the one or the other.”
Dyson fired back at her screenshots calling them lies and an attempt to smear his name.
“The ridiculous lies told by Nancy Mace in the effort to smear my name because of her anger at being checked for her insensitive disregard for @VP I had no intent with her to do anything but be nice. And her white women’s tears and mendacity are all in the service of lies and distortions. I was wrong about one thing: she IS a bigot and racist,” Dyson tweeted Thursday night.
Dyson also took to Instagram to share that he was joking about how united they looked in the pictures they took after the CNN interview.
“I ain’t hittin’ on Nancy Mace. This is a woman trying to exploit a situation, trying to pretend as if I was trying to hit on her,” Dyson said. “What you’re trying to do is generate nastiness and viciousness because you’re so bitter because you got your butt whipped that night because I told you then that what you’re doing is wrong,” he said of Mace.
According to NewsOne, Dyson was encouraged to take the photo by Abby Philip. “Abby Philip, the host of the show, suggested we take pictures,” he said before going on to explain that “the whole point was — two bi-polar opposites: Michael Eric Dyson on one side, Nancy Mace on the other.”
Dyson said that his “Don’t tell anybody we look good together” line was about them being “bi-polar opposites” and that the kissy face emoji was accompanied by a laughing emoji, indicating that he was joking.
“And she said, ‘Ha ha ha ha ha,’ and I said, ‘Well, your gorgeousness makes the photo, so, there’s that,’” Dyson said, claiming he was “just trying to be nice to her” to prove “we can be relatively nice to each other.