Yes, we’re most assuredly in an era when “The Daily Show” an reveal more truths about politicians than the news — by just giving someone a chance to talk and, seemingly oblivious, reveal their true selves. In an interview that will be shown for many years, a North Carolina Republican Party precinct chairman virtually admitted that the state’s draconian voter ID laws are aimed at keeping Democrats away from the polls as he talked about the “lazy black people” who “want the government to give them everything.” The result: an Internet furor — and the party getting Don Yelton’s resignation.

When Buncombe County Republican precinct chair Yelton was interviewed with Daily Show field correspondent Aasif Mandv, Yelton made a point of noting that one of his best friends is black.

Oh. Take Part’s Shaya Tayefe Mohajer:

Don Yelton is known as “The Rush Limbaugh of Western North Carolina,” which is quite the reputation to have earned.

The Buncombe County Republican precinct chairman and GOP executive committee member tells The Daily Show that he’s been “called a bigot before,” and doesn’t seem to smart at the description much.

He goes on to say that laws that are intended to limit access to voting for young people and blacks don’t bother him a smidge.

“If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, so be it,” he said.

Not so fast. The NAACP filed a lawsuit against North Carolina’s new voter laws, saying they target blacks, and the U.S. Justice Department filed a similar suit on the same grounds. The new law passed by Republican supermajorities and signed by a GOP governor requires photo identification, shortens the window to vote in, bars same-day voter registration and disqualifies some ballots.

But hey, if Republicans like Yelton can trot out the age old excuse that one of their best friends are black, it’s cool right?

Wrong.

Here’s the interview as aired on The Daily Show in which, yes, Yelton does sound a bit like Rush — only not (quite) as subtle:

Yelton responded to the controversy in an interview with the Mountain Express and stood by his remarks:

Despite the controversy, Yelton tells Xpress: “The comments that were made, that I said, I stand behind them. I believe them.”

The short interview clips were edited together from a much longer two-hour sit-down, says Yelton. But he says he was pleased overall with the parts that were included. In fact, he notes that some of the comments he made that weren’t included might’ve even been more controversial. “To tell you the truth, there were a lot of things I said that they could’ve made sound worse than what they put up.” He adds, “I would’ve loved to been able to do it live. … but that wasn’t offered.”

Yelton says he was well aware of what he was getting into when he agreed to be on the show.

“Everybody and their brother told me ‘they’re going to make fun of you,'” he notes. “I don’t think we can run from the people that disagree with us. If you’re not willing to talk to people you disagree with, than you’re never going to accomplish anything. So that’s why I agreed to take the interview.”

Actually, that’s refreshing: many GOP conservatives these days prefer only to talk to Fox News where they get an interview that is like a session with a paid public relations representative.

Yelton says he’s not sure why he was first contacted by a producer of the Daily Show and asked to appear, although he suspects it might’ve been comments related to President Barack Obama’s race he made on Facebook.

The Daily Show presented Yelton as an “NC Republican Executive Committee member.” However, Yelton reports that he didn’t have the blessing of – or even discuss – the media interview with the county party or state GOP beforehand. Yelton has often disagreed with local party leadership, and was forced to step down from the committee last year. However, this summer, Yelton was reinstated as a Buncombe County Republican Party precinct leader, which gives him a seat on the local executive committee.

Daily Show producers, he says, “Wanted it to be more important than it was. I kept explaining to them that I was a member of the executive committee by lieu of the fact that I was a precinct chair.”

Yelton says he was speaking on the show for himself, not as an official party spokesman. However, he says he has little sympathy for viewers who misinterpreted his comments as coming on behalf of the state GOP.

“People could assume that. But that would mean people don’t know anything about how the political structure operates, which they need to find out,” he says.

And, to be sure, viewers learned a bit about the political structure and how GOPers REALLY view the voter ID laws in North Carolina which suggests bipartisan unanimity:

Yelton confirmed that both parties consider the laws aa sham, hiding behind a withering, microscopic fig leaf of unconvincing Republican partisan spin. Yelton removed the spin — on several levels.

JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.

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