He’s taking this white liberal guilt thing a bit too far.

Via Politico:

Rep. Steve Cohen (R-Tenn.) on Monday defended a controversial racial tweet over the weekend, saying it was a funny joke and emblematic of his support among African-Americans.

Cohen was speaking with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” about last week’s news that a woman he thought was his daughter turned out to not be, a controversy that started with a tweet. Host Mika Brzezinski brought up a tweet Cohen sent over the weekend.

Told AfricanAmerican towdriver my week -father -DNA test not father reporter/ attractive fallout.he(not aware of TN9)says,You’re BLack! Yo— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) July 21, 2013

“It was fun. It was funny. I had a tough night. Here’s what happened: I drive an ‘86 Caddy. A lot of African-Americans drive old cars — a stereotype — a lot of African-Americans drive old cars,” Cohen said, telling the story of his car breaking down and the tow truck driver responding. “I’m having no luck. He drives me, we ditch the car, I come back and I tell him the story. … He goes, ‘Man, you’re black.’ And I took it was a compliment. I hear it in Memphis all the time. My constituents don’t look at me as a white person, they say, ‘You’re one of us.’”

Cohen continued that at home in Tennessee, for example at basketball games, “black guys that sell the cars come up and grab me by around the chest and pull me up and say, ‘You can’t have him, he’s ours.’”

Update: In their zeal to portray Republicans as racists, Politico originally labelled Cohen a Republican. HT: Alexander