It’s become abundantly clear that President Obama doesn’t give two sh*ts or a single f*ck anymore. Last week, the White House issued an official statement calling out Donald Trump and the GOP for their racism. After Donald Trump failed to shut down a racist supporter’s attacks on President Obama’s American citizenship and religion, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest informed the public of a detail the rest of us have known for quite some time: Republicans are racist as hell.
Trump, who has been attracting white supremacist supporters faster than a gaggle of 12-year-old girls holding FreshFit™ subs will cause Jared to come a-running, recently allowed a supporter to express his racist views toward the President with zero challenge whatsoever. The man informed Trump that “we have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims” before adding that President Obama absolutely is one — a theory Trump himself helped popularize — and that the President is not an American, another of the billionaire’s favorite talking points. The man, after ignorantly parroting an extremist conservative talking point about Muslim “training camps” in America, asked the GOP frontrunner when we can “get rid” of all the Muslims.
Trump, who felt that “we need this question,” simply promised his supporter that “We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things” related to ridding the United States of the Muslim scourge. In response, Earnest asked if “anybody is really surprised” that this sort of thing happened at a Donald Trump rally. Then, in a surprisingly frank statement, Earnest laid out the truth of the matter:
“People who hold these offensive views are part of Mr. Trump’s base. Mr. Trump himself would be the first to tell you that he’s got the biggest base of any Republican politician these days. Now it is too bad that he wasn’t able to summon the same kind of patriotism that we saw from Senator McCain, who responded much more effectively and directly when one of his supporters at one of his campaign events made the same kind of false claims.”
In 2009 McCain, to a chorus of boos, shut down one of his bigoted supporters who claimed that President Obama is an Arab. “He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab],” McCain told a woman who said she was “scared” of an Obama Presidency because he is allegedly a bit too Muslim-y.
Earnest pointed out that Trump is not the first Republican to pander to the lowest common denominator:
“Now what is also unfortunate is that Mr. Trump isn’t the first Republican politician to countenance these kinds of views in order to win votes. In fact, that is precisely what every Republican presidential candidate is doing when they decline to denounce Mr. Trump’s cynical strategy, because they are looking for those same votes.”
“Now other Republicans have successfully used this strategy as well. You will recall that one Republican congressman told a reporter that he was David Duke without the baggage,” Earnest pointed out. “That congressman was elected by a majority of his colleagues in the House of Representatives to the third highest-ranking position in the House.”
“Those same members of Congress blocked immigration reform. Those same members of Congress oppose reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act,” the White House press secretary continued. “Those same members of Congress couldn’t support a simple funding bill because they are eager to defend the Confederate flag.
“So those are the priorities of today’s Republican Party,” he concluded,” adding that “they will continue to be until someone in the Republican Party decides to summon the courage to stand up and change it.”
Trump, who reportedly keeps a book of Adolf Hitler’s speeches by his bedside for what one can only guess is inspirational reading, recently failed to shut down a supporter who screamed “White power” at another one of his rallies. In fact, after he was called out on his failure to turn around and tell the man to shut the f*ck up, the official response from the Trump campaign was that white supremacists are “very receptive to” the billionaire’s message.
After two of his supporters beat a Hispanic homeless man with a metal pipe and urinated on their victim’s face, Trump initially explained that the people following him are “very passionate” and “want this country to be great again.”
After the “get rid of the Muslims” incident, Trump was unapologetic. Asked if he would stop a supporter who wanted to “get rid” of all black people, the real estate mogul explained that he would not, because the man’s antiquated viewpoints would be valuable enough to be heard.
At this point, with his third term in the bag, according to many Republicans, President Obama doesn’t have much to lose in finally calling Republicans out for their horrible rhetoric and unbelievable racism. The beautiful thing about this statement is that Republicans, who have remained largely silent on the issue since the statement, will eventually be forced to respond…once they figure out what to say.
Watch Earnest lay the smack down, below:
Featured Image via Twitter