A newly published video shows a white Republican U.S. senator in Mississippi praising someone by saying: "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who faces a black Democratic challenger in a Nov. 27 runoff, said Sunday that her Nov. 2 remark was "an exaggerated expression of regard" for someone who invited her to speak, and "any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous."

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