August 7, 2018

Nicolle Wallace wanted to talk about Trump supporters and racism.

"I think there are a lot of racist Trump supporters and a lot of not-racist Trump supporters but are willing to tolerate the racism because they like him for other reasons," John Heilemann said.

"They like him because, they're willing to vote for him because they like the Supreme Court judge, the tax cuts, he expresses their sense of grievance, things they think Trump gives voice to, they're willing to sort of say -- they probably have not confronted their own deep racism in some senses, but they would say they're in favor of racial equality."

(Uh, John, didn't you just prove her point? Just because they don't admit to being racist doesn't change anything!)

"But that they don't think -- they think Trump is just talking about that stuff. They don't see it as insidious as it is and they're willing to excuse it. I'm not saying they should be willing to, but they are willing to excuse it because they think there are other thing Trump does that they like."

"We ought to be explaining to them without making allegations of what they're willing to excuse or not. We ought to be explaining why this is so," Times columnist Bret Stephens said.

"No, here's the deal. If you have a child, you should know already. I'm not explaining to any Trump voter, my parents included. You associate with someone who is a racist and you get the taint of being a racist as well. I think we're done with that. I think that was the excuse in 2016 when he was an unknown. We're now 365 days after Charlottesville. He is now governing as an American president who is also a racist. Enough," Wallace said.

"Believe me, I know. But as Abraham Lincoln said a long time ago, a drop of honey draws more flies than a gallon of gall," Stephens said.

She shut him down.

"I guess I don't want those flies," Wallace said.

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