Before Tuesday's House of Representatives voted on the resolution to condemn the Orange Orangutan's racist tweets against the four most visible Progressive Freshmen reps, Nicolle Wallace spoke to Rep. Karen Bass of California. Rep. Bass is president of the Congressional Black Caucus, and two of the four reps at the center of this particular firestorm belong to the CBC. She spoke of her deep concerns for the safety of the Representatives targeted by the occupant of the Oval Office. Her worries were not baseless, given the number of death threats they receive, and also given the number of white nationalists who commit hate crimes in Trump's name.
REP. BASS: I absolutely am. One put out an anti-Semitic political cartoon as well, and he was welcomed into the White House. I will tell you that I am seriously worried about the lives of our four colleagues, two of which are the members of the Congressional Black Caucus. These four women go through death threats every single day. They don't talk about it very often. I'm very worried one of them might be injured, or even killed. Remember, when the guy went in and shot up the synagogue, remember who he cited. He said that the president said they were getting funding to encourage Central Americans to come over to the United States. I believe that his racist hateful rhetoric absolutely has consequences. All he needs to do is trigger somebody who is mentally unstable or who is a bigger racist than he is, and somebody else is going to get hurt. I believe people have already been hurt because of his racist rhetoric.
WALLACE: Congresswoman, I just want to get you on the record, and make sure I understand exactly what you're saying. Do you believe other than endangering the lives of these four Congresswoman that he targeted ini those racist tweets, do you believe he'd have blood on his hands if there were a racially inspired attack on this country?
REP. BASS: I absolutely believe that. Yes. Remember now, before our last election we have four acts of domestic terrorism. Remember the guy who delivered the bomb, do you remember his van was covered in pro-Trump stickers and posters? I think he's already had that effect. I'm very, very concerned it will continue. I'm very afraid for my colleagues' safety for a long time now and think what he did over this weekend just puts them in further danger.
To be clear, he already has blood on his hands. But Trump has shown he has no problem with that. And that's what should terrify the rest of us.
