Speaking at the outset of his CNN show this Monday, Jake Tapper ripped into President Trump for his tweets targeting progressive freshman congresswomen, saying they were a blatant example of President being “stunningly racist.”
“President Trump seemed to be referencing Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, who were born in New York City, Detroit, and Cincinnati, respectively. As well as Congresswoman Ilhan Omar who came to the U.S. as a child, a refugee from Somalia. She’s been a U.S. Citizen since a teenager, longer than the first lady,” Tapper said.
He then mentioned various Republicans who’ve tried to provide cover for Trump, one of whom was immigration chief Ken Cuccinelli, who tried to claim during a recent CNN appearance that he hadn’t read Trump’s tweets. It was pointed out to him that the tweets were read to him live on air during a previous CNN appearance. Tapper then showed a clip of Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Mark Short, claiming that Trump’s words weren’t bigoted and were only a manifestation of Trump’s frustration with the congresswomen’s alleged anti-American sentiments.
“So, anti-American sentiment, in this view, justifies racism,” Tapper said.
“It, of course, does not in any decent or civilized world,” he continued. “But a world in which religious, and racial and nationalistic and hatred is in the open, well, it is certainly acceptable there. In fact, the President was asked today if it bothered him that white supremacists have found common cause in his ‘go back where you came from’ tweets.”
Tapper then showed a clip of Trump saying, “It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me.”
“Right,” Tapper said. “And some of those people are white supremacists.”
“And they think a lot of us should go back where we came from,” Tapper continued. “Me, and him, and him, and her … even if we ourselves came from the United States of America. Now, this isn’t new. You can find, and I did, in a Kansas newspaper from the 1800s, evidence of a local demagogue telling a Swedish American who had expressed concern about the then-current state of affairs to go back to where he came from. Now, the Kansas journalist who wrote this up mocked this ‘debasing insult’ — again, this is in the 19th century — questioning whether or not only those with heritage in Sweden but those with heritage in Germany or Ireland or Norway should go back to where they came from. Of course they shouldn’t, and thank God they didn’t. But in Manhattan, Kansas, in August of 1892, they knew better.”
Watch the full segment below, via CNN:
Featured image via screen grab
