On Sunday, freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared on CBS’Â 60 Minutes in what turned out to be an incredibly triggering segment for conservatives who are already so obsessed with the incoming lawmaker that they can barely do their jobs.
In one part of the interview with correspondent Anderson Cooper, the host asked the Representative both why she doesn’t speak much about Donald Trump and whether or not she believes he is a racist. Her response was like a brief break from the crazy pills being forced down America’s throat:
As 60 Minutes noted in the clip, the White House did respond to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’ remarks. But it really must have been eating away at them — getting them as obsessed with “AOC” as the rest of the GOP — because Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley (if that’s the name of a real person) was back with another statement today, and it sounds just as racist:
If that’s not the “some of my best friends are black” of official White House statements, I’m not sure what is. The thing is, everything that the White House claims here as evidence that Trump isn’t racist was in place before Trump was elected. “Criminal justice reform” was the platform — for reasons other than racial reparations — of a number of Republicans, and Trump latched on because it was an easy win for him. Trump does not “secure dollars” for anything. Trump has no policies that have created low unemployment rates for blacks and Hispanics — he merely continued the policies of the previous administration.
On top of all that, you’re not supposed to crow about how good you are to “the minorities” all the time. It’s actually just the right thing to do — you don’t get to brag. But even this statement sounds racist because it equates color with the things white supremacy has historically equated it with: Colleges just for them, prisons, and getting them jobs. Black people and Hispanics are more than prisons and jobs numbers. If he wants to support people of color, he could start by putting them in actual positions of authority and empowering them to help their communities.
But you already know all of that. The saddest part of the statement is how blithely Hogan Gidley asserts that Trump has “condemned racism and bigotry in all forms.” That’s a lie. Trump still employs admitted white supremacists and embraces policies that further their cause. He just pimped a book on his Twitter feed by a guy who literally wears Nazi medals. He habitually retweets white supremacist Twitter accounts, sometimes without even realizing who they are — which means he’s not trolling anyone, he really DOES believe the same things as them.
When the novelty wears off for Republicans, perhaps AOC can focus on doing the work she was elected to Congress to do, rather than having to respond to the attention of terrified conservatives. And when she does, then they can start to be really scared.
Featured image via screen capture
