{"id":44043,"date":"2020-02-11T12:43:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T20:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=44043"},"modified":"2020-02-11T13:17:08","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T21:17:08","slug":"trump-calls-bloomberg-racist-for-policy-he-recanted-but-that-trump-still-supports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=44043","title":{"rendered":"Trump Calls Bloomberg Racist for Policy He Recanted but that Trump Still Supports"},"content":{"rendered":"

The evidence of Donald Trump’s blatant and long-held racism is well documented<\/a><\/strong>. He openly disparaged people of color as criminals and rapists on the day he announced his candidacy for president. He demeans African-American members of Congress as “low IQ”<\/em> and tells them to “Go back you came from<\/a><\/strong>“<\/em> (by which he means the “shithole countries”<\/em>) He attacked minorities in the media<\/a><\/strong> with flagrantly bigoted insults. And he even praised neo-Nazis as “very fine people”<\/em> as they marched through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia.<\/p>\n

\"Donald
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Under the circumstances, it would be astonishingly stupid for Trump to accuse anyone else of being a racist. And yet, that’s exactly what he did on Tuesday morning. Trump posted a tweet that bellowed in all caps “WOW, BLOOMBERG IS A TOTAL RACIST!”<\/em> He later deleted the tweet, but nothing is ever gone for good<\/a><\/strong> on the Internet.<\/p>\n

Trump was referencing a video that was recently discovered of then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg making unambiguously prejudiced remarks. Bloomberg was defending his “stop and frisk”<\/em> policy in New York City as means of reducing crime and getting guns off the streets. The video shows him saying that…<\/p>\n

“95% of your murders and murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take the description and Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male minorities 15 to 25.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s no way to sugarcoat those remarks. Bloomberg was wrong to say that and wrong to implement the policy. However, last year he acknowledged that he was wrong and retracted<\/a><\/strong> both his statement and his support for the policy saying that…<\/p>\n

“Over time I\u2019ve come to understand something that I\u2019ve long struggled to admit to myself. I got something important wrong. I got something important really wrong. I can\u2019t change history, but today, I want you to know that I realize that back then I was wrong, And I\u2019m sorry.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s more, in response to the current controversy over the video, Bloomberg said<\/a><\/strong>…<\/p>\n

“I regret that and I have apologized – and I have taken responsibility for taking too long to understand the impact it had on Black and Latino communities. But this issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity. I believe we need to end mass incarceration and during my tenure we reduced incarceration by 40% and juvenile confinement by more than 60%.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Voters can decide for themselves if Bloomberg’s apology was sufficient. But at least he has made an attempt to undo the damage that he recognizes was done by his prior insensitivity. He has expressed his remorse and, more importantly, has incorporated his words into actions that are now integral to his presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

However, the same cannot be said of Trump. He has never offered any apologies for his scores of hateful comments. To the contrary, he doubles down each time he is held to account. He has literally claimed that he is “the least racist person<\/a><\/strong> anywhere in the world.”<\/em> And specifically with regard to his accusations against Bloomberg, Trump actually still supports “stop and frisk”<\/em> and isn’t bothered that it has been adjudicated as racial profiling:<\/p>\n

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Stop and frisk works. Instead of criticizing @NY_POLICE<\/a> Chief Ray Kelly, New Yorkers should be thanking him for keeping NY safe.<\/p>\n

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n