CNN commentator and former President Bill Clinton staffer Keith Boykin compared the group of Republicans who walked into a close-door impeachment testimony to the Klu Klux Klan.
CNN host S.E. Cupp said the Republicans looked "ridiculous," prompting Boykin to call the incident a "disgraceful stunt."
"I’ll go further than S.E. will go and I'll say that this looked like a Klan group that had assembled outside of a jail trying to get the sheriff to let them in so they could deliver justice against somebody who's inside," Boykin said on Thursday. "It’s not a good look for our democracy. It's not good look for the Republican Party."
"I think the Klan metaphor was a little strong. I don't want to get into the whole thing. But earlier this week we're talking about lynching and using that word lightly. I’m not going to debate the history," CNN anchor Jake Tapper pushed back.
"I understand. I used it purposely, because I felt like there's a visual problem, too, to have this group of almost all white men going in, in defense of the white man who already is, I think, by most accounts, a racist," Boykin said.
Led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the group of Republicans walked into the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) just as House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) was about to give his opening statement for Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper's testimony.
While some left to attend to other matters, other Republicans stayed inside trying to demand more transparency in the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry.