President Trump said that he is unfazed by critics who call him a racist because of the Democrats’ reckless use of the term.
In a C-SPAN interview Wednesday, Trump asserted that the “racist” label has little meaning anymore because of overuse. He pointed out that even Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats’ veteran leader, was smeared with the term by the so-called “Squad” of progressive legislators.
“Her own party called Nancy Pelosi a racist two weeks ago. The word is so overused, it’s such a disgrace. And I can tell you I’m the least racist person in the world as far as I’m concerned,” he added.
Diluting language
Trump has been accused of racism in recent weeks after he told four minority Democrats in the “Squad” to “go back” to their home countries. The president expanded and ramped up the feud when he slammed black lawmaker Elijah Cummings (D-MD) over squalid conditions in “rat and rodent infested” Baltimore.
In his interview, Trump expressed a common complaint among many conservatives, who say the “racist” label is a smear to silence dissent from the left’s agenda. Trump also hinted at an unfortunate side-effect of abusing the term: there are “people that are racists, bad people,” but the word’s impact has been diluted.
“Well, I think the world has really gone down a long way because everybody’s called a racist now,” Trump said, adding that Democrats use the term “when they run out of things to criticize.”
Trump said that the media is ignoring his efforts to help black Americans, citing criminal justice reform and a historically low black unemployment rate. “But with me, they have a hard time getting away with it, and they don’t get away with it,” Trump added.
Trump hits Dems over “race card”
Pelosi’s long-simmering feud with the “Squad” exploded after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) accused Pelosi of “singling out” her, Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) primarily because of their race. But the feud was quickly forgotten after Trump told the four lawmakers, who are U.S. citizens, to “go back” to their home countries — setting off an entire news cycle based on Trump’s alleged “racism.”
The drama escalated further when Trump supporters broke into chants of “send her back” at a Trump rally, referring to the Somalian-born Omar. While Democrats have accused Trump of racism, the president has said that the “Squad” warrants criticism for its anti-American statements. The controversy revived talk on the right that liberals overuse the “race card” to quash dissonant voices.
In fact, even after the “go back” controversy exploded, the “Squad” continued to accuse Pelosi of treating its members differently due to race. Later, Trump called Cummings a “brutal bully” after he grilled immigration officials over conditions in migrant facilities at the border and alleged that Cummings habitually ignored the concerns of constituents in his “disgusting, rat, and rodent infested mess” of a district.
Trump defended Pelosi in her feud with the “Squad,” but she has not shown him the same courtesy. Despite Pelosi’s feud getting buried by the outrage over Trump, the president did not forget the “Squad’s” attack on the Speaker even when she accused Trump of a being “racist” for his comments about Cummings.
“Someone please explain to Nancy Pelosi, who was recently called racist by those in her own party, that there is nothing wrong with bringing out the very obvious fact that Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore. Just take a look, the facts speak far louder than words!” Trump tweeted. “The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact they have done so little for our Nation’s great African American people,” he added.
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