April Ryan: Don Jr. Retweet Of Birtherism Bot Attack On Harris 'Not A Good Look' For Him
American Urban Radio Networks' April Ryan tells CNN's Victor Blackwell that race is an issue the Trump administration doesn't "need to touch" when attempting to explain why Don Jr. deleted a racist retweet of a bot attack against Sen. Kamala Harris.
Donald Trump Jr. was widely panned for proving that the racist apple doesn't fall far from the fascist tree after he retweeted, then deleted, a bot attack against Sen. Kamala Harris questioning whether she was actually black enough to speak for black Americans during the debate this Thursday night: Donald Trump Jr. Gets Slammed Over Birtherism Bot Attack On Kamala Harris:
Donald Trump Jr. was bashed on Twitter Saturday for boosting a “birtherism” campaign against Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) that’s surging now in the wake of her breakout performance in the Democratic primary debate.
A right-wing operative attacked Harris on Twitter after the debate, claiming she had no right to represent American blacks because her father grew up in Jamaica. Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, was born in Oakland, California, in 1964.
The attack went viral thanks in part to Donald Jr.’s retweet and an assist from Twitter accounts identified as bots. The onslaught echoes the “birther” campaign against Barack Obama falsely claiming he was born in Africa and couldn’t therefore legally be president. Donald Trump (with wife Melania ) was a leading voice among a group of conspiracy theorists that promulgated the Obama birther lie. Now the attack moves down a generation.
Earlier this month, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner refused to directly answer whether Trump’s birther lie about Obama was racist.
The irony is that those challenging Harris’ “bonafides” as a minority are battling to undermine equality from within a right-wing perspective. Read on...
American Urban Radio Networks' April Ryan was asked about the tweet on CNN's New Day this Sunday, and why Junior chose to delete it, and gave the administration and Trump's family way too much credit for their so-called outreach to African American voters. Ryan told host Victor Blackwell that "race is something they don't need to touch." Sorry, but fear of black and brown people is all they've got. It's not a bug, it's a feature.
RYAN: Most definitely they do. Kamala Harris, I'm going to be quite frank, my MVP is for first round of those debates, for first debate was Julian Castro and most definitely for the second debate, it was Kamala Harris. She came out to win, no matter what she had to do, and president Trump saw that.
That's one of the reasons why he downplayed her performance. He downplayed her performance because she went after Joe Biden. And she diminished his star to a certain extent. But at the same time, what does the president do when it is a black woman? He diminishes them.
Now his son Donald Jr. got him on it. President Trump started his politics, if you will, or becoming this political player off of birtherism, questioning the legitimacy of then president Barack Hussein Obama who was born of a white woman from the United States and a Kenyan. So – but he was born in Hawaii, even though the president may not realize Hawaii is part of the 50 states.
For them to do this, and they want the black vote, it is atrocious. You just can't do that. Kamala Harris is a black woman in America, and they don't understand that there are a large number of mixed race people in this nation who are black. And they don't understand that. And that's a problem.
And there is irony also. There is irony when the president of the united states says his father was born in Germany, so why isn't anyone questioning that? We know he was born in the United States. But it is such an irony. You know, you have Ted Cruz, why is it always a black person versus someone from another community?
BLACKWELL: Yea, it really is a misunderstanding of the breadth of the diaspora what was written in that tweet, and we're intentionally not saying it because we don't want to promulgate this lie and this framework on this show.
RYAN: Exactly. She is legitimate. She is legitimate.
PAUL: So what do you make of the fact, April, that Donald Trump Jr. retweeted it and then deleted it?
RYAN: Because it was not the best thing for him to do, specifically as this president has an albatross hanging around his neck that has the word race on it. The president, the answer to my question about the exonerated or Central Park Five, you know, if indeed that he -- it was left up to him, they would be dead or executed, even though they were found innocent. That's a race issue.
Charlottesville, birtherism with Barack Obama, s-hole nations, I mean, just the list goes on, how he goes after Maxine Waters. I mean, it's just so much, black women. What he did to Congresswoman Frederica Wilson.
Race is something that they don't need to touch, and Donald Jr. did that and he had to pull it back because it's another thing stacked on as you lead into 2020. How can he say he's someone for everyone when he's going to -- continues to go after black women or black people? It's just, it's not a good look.
BLACKWELL: We'll see if we -- if this moves to the center of strategy from the president or from the campaign or this was just a poor choice by Donald Trump Jr.