U.S. President Donald Trump is a racist, and seeing how there are people of all different backgrounds living in the United States, that fact has grave bearing on his ability to do his job as president. Neither he nor his followers live in the white utopia they desire. Georgia state Senator Michael Williams, though, doesn’t appear to think too much of the racism.
He indicated as much during a discussion of former Trump staffer Omarosa Manigault-Newman’s claim that she’s heard a tape of the president using the n-word to disparage blacks on the set of his old reality show The Apprentice.
CNN host Victor Blackwell asked him if whether or not the tape really exists would matter to him, and he replied:
‘It would matter [to me] as an individual. It would not necessarily matter to me as [about] the person that is running our country… He has his personal beliefs, his personal ideas. I truly believe he is able to separate those from how he is running the country.’
Again though, in reality, the distinction between the president’s personal beliefs and ideas and his policies isn’t as clear cut as Williams pretends it is. Just look at some of Trump’s policy proposals. He’s insisted that a wall along the entire border between the U.S. and Mexico must go up, and that Mexico will somehow, some day, pay for it. There is, however, little verifiable impetus for the wall, since undocumented immigration continues its historical downward trend to this day, and there isn’t some overwhelming population of criminals among those undocumented immigrants to begin with.
In addition, there’s never been any indication by the actual Mexican government that they’re willing to pay for the wall.
In other words, the entire premise rests on Trump’s “personal beliefs.” He’s so committed to those beliefs that he’s repeatedly expressed willingness to refuse to approve any government spending at all if he doesn’t get the money he wants for “border security.”
So yeah, Senator Williams — it matters. The purported tape of Trump using the n-word is not some isolated one-off issue. It’s part of something much broader.
Blackwell pressed him further, asking how he came up with such a distinction between the president’s racism and his behavior and performance as president. In response, he insisted that he was able to distinguish the two because of the supposed great job Trump’s doing in office. Trump — allegedly — only used the word before he gained political power, now he has it, and (probably) wouldn’t use the word publicly. Problem, solved, right?
Wrong.
Still, Williams insisted:
‘Just because he might have done it years ago not as our president doesn’t mean we need to continue to berate him because he used it… to hold somebody accountable for something that he did years ago as our president today — I think it sets a bad precedent.’
Watch below.
Remember — this guy currently holds a position of power in the government of Georgia. He was an early Trump backer, and this year, ran in the Republican primary for governor of Georgia, but finished with only 4.88 percent of the vote. He declined to seek re-election to his currently held state Senate seat and isn’t on the ballot this November, which marks the near end of his term.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
