Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) is very upset that Democrats think racial discrimination is still a problem. Days after a House floor clash with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) over the House Republican majority’s decision to rescind Obama-era protections against auto lending discrimination, he complained on Tuesday morning’s Fox & Friends that claims of modern day racial inequalities are not American.

Kelly, an automobile dealer, argued that at a time when the economy is good, House Democrats should not raise this issue. “We have seen the economy take off,” he told Fox & Friends. “I just think that if you come to the floor and there are 60 minutes to debate. 30 minutes on each side. But as I was sitting there, I had 30 minutes of Democrats coming down and talking about how bad automobile people are because they discriminate against nonwhite buyers. I said that’s not America. We don’t talk about those things.”

Kelly then credited President Trump for having united America and purportedly ending racial strife.

“We are a people of diversity, but we come together to make America great again. When I’ve seen what President Trump has done and you come in this area you can see it. It is so uplifting. Look at this, you say ‘if your only platform is hate and resistance and not about bringing the country together again’ — I mean, listen, we are still the United States of America, not Divided States of America, and if we can’t talk better than what happened on the floor the other day. I was disappointed and the Democrats that came down, every single person demagoguing and talking about how bad automobile people are. It’s just not true.”


The rules, guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were established in 2013 after studies found car dealers often give higher interest rates markups for nonwhite buyers than for their white counterparts. House and Senate Republicans voted, almost entirely on party lines, to eliminate the guidance. President Trump is expected to sign it.