Rosa Parks’ niece, Rhea McCauley, is calling out Republican Rep. George Santos for using her aunt as an example to demonstrate the way he says he was treated during the State of the Union address.
A clip of an interview featuring U.S. Rep. Santos and podcast host Mike Crispi drew lots of attention after Santos recounted an encounter with Sen. Mitt Romney who reportedly told him he had to sit at the back of President Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this year.
The New York congressman didn’t take too kindly to the fact that Romney, a white man, told him, a Latino gay man, to sit at the back of the audience. He relayed his thoughts on that encounter on the podcast saying, “Guess what, Rosa Parks didn’t sit in the back, and neither am I gonna sit in the back.”
His comparison drew a sizable amount of comments denouncing his comparison to the civil rights pioneer.
And now McCauley is joining that surge of backlash.
In an interview with TMZ, she said it was “totally inappropriate for Santos to compare himself to her aunt” adding that “it’s apples to oranges when it comes to the situation.” The remarks also upset other relatives of Parks.
McCauley also said that she and her family are “ticked off” that Santos even introduced Parks into the conversation since there is no true justification for likening himself to her.
Parks’ refusal to sit in the colored section of a bus in 1956 catalyzed the civil rights movement and numerous bus boycotts across the country. Santos’ mention of Parks was used to strengthen his side of the story about what he characterized as being disrespected by Romney, who objected to his fellow Republican’s prominent presence on the State of the Union occasion despite the scandals surrounding him.
Parks’ niece says her aunt wouldn’t have been a fan of Santos due to his alleged involvement in a number of fraud and money laundering schemes. She also says Santos owes the family an apology.
