It is common practice for those around Trump to explain away his most divisive statements by saying that he didn’t say what everyone heard him say, or that he didn’t mean what it sounded like he said, or that the problem isn’t Trump but the “PC culture” that’s to blame for the outrage over Trump’s most racist rhetoric.
The latest controversy that the White House has been asked to address is around a tweet in which Trump’s meaning seems fairly clear and obvious. Yet when asked to address the meaning, White House press secretary did the familiar song and dance about how people are misconstruing the meaning and that it had nothing to do with racism against Latino people.
CNN journalist April Ryan asked the press secretary to explain Trump’s use of the word in a contentious exchange during the press briefing on Monday. Ryan asked what the president meant and pointed out that most people associated the term “breeding” with animals. Sanders, as per usual, affected a snarky, offended attitude and suggested that the real problem is people’s perception of what Trump says and not what Trump actually says.
‘Certainly I think that it could mean a lot of things to a lot of people. But the president is talking about a growing problem.’
The word “breeding” has raised an outcry from those familiar with Trump’s use of dog whistle racism to appease the more bigoted stance of his worst voters. Ignoring Trump’s insinuation that cities with high populations of immigrants who refuse to task their already overburdened local police forces with investigating every brown person’s citizenship status or turning them over to federal authorities without a warrant (there is no evidence that crime rates are higher in sanctuary cities; in fact, quite the opposite is true according to crime statistics), his use of the term has a long history in racist ideology.
While Trump’s use of the word “breeding” may be new, and the White House may deny that it has racist overtones or that Trump is pointing to any insinuation that Latino immigrants having babies contributes to higher amounts of crime, he has most certainly pushed the idea that illegal immigration leads to more crime, and his opposition to “anchor babies” is well-known.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UZ3dsvgmZs
See video of the exchange below:
Sanders passes up another opportunity to explain what Trump meant with his odd “breeding concept” tweet pic.twitter.com/HzHNAFvaF0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 23, 2018
Featured image screengrab via video
H/T: RawStory
