Mike Lawler is under fire for using blackface. He recently declined to condemn racist rhetoric, twice.

NEW YORK — Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) at least twice in the past month has missed or sidestepped opportunities to condemn racist language in public settings, POLITICO has learned on the heels of a New York Times report that he wore blackface in college.

Three weeks ago, at a forum on combating antisemitism held north of New York City, Lawler spoke almost immediately after a participant used a racial slur for Black people, but he did not address the man’s use of the epithet, according to audio reviewed by POLITICO.

Last week, the freshman Republican pivoted to a different topic when far-right talk radio host Sid Rosenberg told him in an interview that Islamophobia and white supremacy do not exist, but Black supremacy does.

While neither episode is an example of Lawler himself using racist rhetoric, each may shed light on how he reacts in environments where such language or sentiment may go unchallenged. The endangered House member’s conduct was thrown into sharper relief Thursday when the Times reported on a nearly 20-year-old photo of Lawler dressed as Michael Jackson with his skin darkened by makeup — an image recalling racist minstrel shows and a practice that has plunged other public figures into scandal.

The first-termer told the Times that blackface was the “furthest thing” from his mind and apologized to anyone taking offense to the photo. He told CNN late Thursday that his costume was an homage to Jackson.

The Republican member is locked in a close battle for reelection in New York’s Hudson Valley against former Rep. Mondaire Jones, a Black Democrat. Their contest is one of about six in New York that could determine which party controls Congress.

A political moderate in a swing district, Lawler has been repeatedly tested by Donald Trump’s conduct and rhetoric — and has stood up to his party’s leader in some instances. In one example, he recently called on his GOP colleagues to cease spreading baseless rumors about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Lawler was part of the Sept. 13 roundtable in Chappaqua where a participant sought to make the case that antisemitism goes unchecked on college campuses. The man said, “if a bunch of white boys wanted to start a Klan membership at Columbia University, set up chants and started chanting, ‘Lynch the n-----s’” that such activity would not be allowed for longer than 30 seconds.

After a female participant appeared to agree, Lawler responded, not by directly addressing the racist comment, but by offering a general recollection of a visit he made to Columbia, which was home to pro-Palestinian encampments.

Lawler was a guest more recently on the talk radio show, “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” when the host argued, “It’s kind of like Islamophobia, it’s nice to say, but it does not exist. They want to kill Jews, not Muslims. It’s kind of like white supremacy, it doesn’t exist. Blacks, yes, but not white supremacy.”

The member of Congress chose not to engage or call Rosenberg out. Instead, he focused on the topic at hand, which was his bill to grant presidential candidates the same Secret Service protection as presidents in office.

Lawler’s team responded by noting that Jones, his Democratic challenger, has made racially charged remarks. As a House member, Jones accused the GOP of “ white supremacist politics .” In 2021, he called ICE a “racist institution.”

“Let me get this straight: POLITICO wants our campaign to answer for inappropriate things other people said in Congressman Lawler’s presence, but it is simultaneously unwilling to cover and analyze the dozens of instances where Mondaire Jones himself has personally used racially divisive, slanderous, and hyperbolic rhetoric to attack police, border patrol agents, and people with whom he has political differences?” Lawler's campaign spokesperson Chris Russell asked. “Thanks, but we’ll pass.”

A version of this story first appeared Friday in New York Playbook. Subscribe here .