Donald Trump may be once again trying to dial back some of his divisive and racist rhetoric, but he seems to have forgotten to tell his people that.
Trump released a statement after a sniper named Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, shot 12 police officers and killed five after a peaceful Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday night. Although he finally acknowledged the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile days after they occurred by calling them “senseless” and “tragic,” he failed to mention their names, the underlying issue of race and police brutality behind their deaths, or to acknowledge the voices of the growing movement dedicated to shining a spotlight on the systematic killing of black bodies by law enforcement in our country. In fact, Trump didn’t say anything about these two “senseless, tragic deaths” until after the Dallas shooting.
Trump’s camp, however, did him one better. Since Trump can’t continue his rhetoric about those who acknowledge racism being divisive in regards to this tragedy, or to blame Hillary Clinton for the deaths of these officers without criticism, his camp did it for him…right before they deleted the statement.
Corey Stewart is the chairman of Donald Trump’s Virginia campaign who will be running for governor next year. The tweet was deleted and Trump’s people were quick to distance themselves from the statement.
“Trump’s campaign disavowed the post, issuing a statement through John Fredericks, host of a conservative radio talk show and vice chairman of Trump’s Virginia campaign.
‘Corey Stewart’s comments are his own,’ Fredericks said. ‘They have nothing to do with the Trump campaign. They are not reflective of Mr. Trump’s position, nor are they indicative of Mr. Trump’s personal value system on the horrific events in Dallas and the last several days, with so many people killed. Today, Mr. Trump offers his thoughts and prayers for all of the victims’ families. And everyone in the Trump campaign is praying for our brave police officers and first responders who risk their lives to protect us.'”
Despite the quick backpedaling away from controversy, it’s difficult to deny that Trump has worked hard to pander to the most extreme racists within the GOP voting base after spending days refusing to disavow the KKK’s support of him, his famous announcement speech in which he referred to Latinos as “rapists” and “murderers,” and Trump’s justification of his supporters physically assaulting a Black Lives Matter supporter at one of his rallies when he said simply:
“Maybe he deserved to be roughed up.”
Although Trump has made his indictment of President Obama as “the great divider” a cornerstone statement in his rise to GOP presumptive candidate fame, he still fails to understand why blaming the victims of racism, as well as those who acknowledge the effects of racism in our country, rather than the actual racists in his own party and throughout the country for the visible tension that many white folks are just beginning to understand exists, contributes significantly to that growing divide.
When you lie down with racists, you should expect to get up with ignorant and divisive tweets from your people, ones like the idiotic and clueless one from Corey Stewart.
To remember how Trump supporters respond to the words “Black Lives Matter,” see the video from “The Young Turks” below:
Featured image via Flikr by Donkey Hotey available under a Creative Commons license
