State Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) refused to apologize Wednesday for hurling a racial slur at a bank employee and instead claimed racism in the Milwaukee Police and Wells Fargo Bank response to her actions.
"I'm saddened [by] the rush to judgement; the racism that exists in this community, [and] if I could be candid, in the media as well as in MPD," she said. "My experience is not new--this is a Wells Fargo problem. They have, what, a billion dollar fine under the Trump Administration? That is unusual alone, but it is the discrimination, it is the lying on their customers!"
In a wild press conference Wednesday afternoon, Taylor lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, who removed Taylor from the Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday following the release of a report that determined Taylor bullied and retaliated against a former staffer over a sick leave issue.
Taylor called it a "political lynching."
"In the end, I think the real question is 'Why has this been handled in this way?' " Taylor asked. "And I am saddened by my friend--who I was the deciding vote for her to be the [Minority] Leader not once but twice--I feel that the way that this has been handled was not appropriate."
Taylor also took a shot at LaTonya Johnson, the Milwaukee Democrat who replaced her on the Joint Finance Committee.
"Clarence Thomas is no Thurgood Marshall and LaTonya Johnson is no Lena Taylor," she said, later denying that this statement was an insult to Johnson.
Taylor also acknowledged using a racial slur in the encounter with the bank teller on April 6th, but denied using the word "n****r." She claims she called the teller a "house n***a," which she does not believe to be offensive.
"I made a parting shot," she explained. "I think I have a right to make a parting shot."
Watch the full press conference below courtesy of our partners at Fox 6.