The really important Trump endorsement
by digby
No not the Queen of the Arctic. I’m talking about those White Nationalists who are robo-calling all over Iowa on his behalf.
I had missed his response when quizzed about it by Erin Burnett on CNN last week:
BURNETT: Mr. Trump, when you hear that, does that shock you? Do you denounce that?
TRUMP: Nothing in this country shocks me. I would disavow it, but nothing in this country shocks me. People are angry. They’re angry at what’s going on. They’re angry at the border. They’re angry at the crime. They’re angry at people coming in and shooting Kate in the back in California and San Francisco. They’re angry when Jamiel Shaw shot in the face by an illegal immigrant. They’re angry when the woman, the veteran, 65 years old is raped, sodomized, and killed by an illegal immigrant. And, they’re very angry about it, and — by the way, thousands of other cases like that. They’re very angry about it. So, I would disavow that, but I will tell you people are extremely angry.
BURNETT: People are extremely angry, but to be clear, when he says, “We need smart, well-educated white people to assimilate to our culture, vote Trump,” you’re saying you disavow that. You do denounce that?
TRUMP: Well, you just heard me. I said it. How many times do you want me to say it?
BURNETT: A third would be good.
TRUMP: I said I disavow.
One of the white nationalist robo-callers was asked what he thought of it on a radio show:
Donald Trump’s response when he was asked to address it was just a wonderful response. He disavowed us, but he explained why there is so much anger in America that I couldn’t have asked for a better approach from him.
It is interesting that when asked to disavow White Supremacists he just automatically rattled off his boilerplate violent racist rant about undocumented immigrants. From the perspective of a White Supremacist that’s got to be an awesome validation of their noxious racist philosophy. Who else in national politics would ever do such a thing?
Notorious White Supremacist Jared Taylor agreed:
EDWARDS: Your reaction to the Donald Trump acknowledgement, I think better than anyone really could have expected, correct?
TAYLOR: Yes, he was, you know, for days everybody was calling him up, calling up his campaign saying, “What do you think of these horrible people? Denounce them, denounce them.” And he didn’t. You know, he just maintained a dignified silence as he’s capable of doing. And then finally when CNN’s Erin Burnett really forced him to say, “Well, I would disavow it.”
But she asked him, “are you shocked by this? Will you denounce this?” “I’m not shocked by anything in America.” I thought that was a great line. He’s so quick on his feet. And then he goes to say, “I would disavow it” but then he goes on to explain why people are so angry.
In effect, he’s saying, “Yeah, yeah, if you want me to denounce it I will, but I understand exactly what these guys are saying, they’re furious, and they’re right to be furious.” So if he disavowed us, he did it, I thought, in the nicest possible way.
When he’s right, he’s right. Trump was almost courtly in his “disavowal” of the despicable racists and very nicely made their argument for them for a mainstream CNN audience. What could be better than that?
I just have to love the fact that Paul Ryan and the establishment are seriously talking about backing this repellant piece of work. If they do, they will explicitly and openly be joining hands with White Supremacists like Jared Taylor.
But hey, Trump is telling everyone who’ll listen that “the blacks” and Latinos love him so maybe they’ve just decided to close their eyes and believe. Or maybe they’re just feeling some relief that if they back Trump they don’t have to pretend to be anything but bigoted white supremacists themselves anymore. Someone should ask them about it.
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