In a statement White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said criticism of the racist Trump video was “fake outrage.” Leavitt also said, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans should “immediately denounce Trump’s disgusting bigotry.” He also noted, “The Obamas are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country. Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the video was “disgusting behavior by the president” and said, “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is a Black Republican, condemned the post writing, “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Notably in its first draft of coverage of the video, the story from New York Times reporter Isabella Kwai insisted that it was “unclear if Mr. Trump was aware that the clip had been included in the video before he shared it.” That paragraph was later removed but no editor’s note was included in the story despite the major change. The Times and other major news organizations have frequently been caught cleaning up Trump’s remarks and policies, removing context of his bigotry and ineptitude in a practice called “sanewashing.”
But there is no doubt that Trump is a racist. |
