The following is an open letter to Congresman Tom Reed in response to Donald Trump's racist tweets attacking Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
....and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
....it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
Congressman Reed, you were probably too busy to see it, but the hashtags #SilenceEqualsComplicity and #SilenceEqualsCompliance were trending on Twitter a couple of days ago. Where are all the Republican voices speaking out against Trump's racism? If Trump's recent tweets against the four freshmen Congresswomen didn't convince you that Trump is a racist, then may I provide you with a short overview? This is from “Is Donald Trump a Racist” by Nicholas Kristof
In 1991, a book by John O’Donnell, who had been president of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, quoted Trump as criticizing a black accountant and saying: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.” O’Donnell wrote that for months afterward, Trump pressed him to fire the black accountant, until the man resigned of his own accord.
Trump eventually denied making those comments. But in 1997 in a Playboy interview, he conceded “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.”
Donald Trump spent $85,000 to take out full page ads in four New York newspapers calling for their execution of the Central Park Five. Though the ad didn't explicitly name the Central Park Five as the target of Trump's ire, the timing of the ad left no doubt as to who he was targeting.
It’s a good thing they weren’t executed, because they didn’t do it. Even after Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer, confessed to carrying out the attack, and even though DNA evidence matched Reyes and did not match any of the Central Park Five, Trump continued to insist that the Five were guilty of SOMETHING.
If that isn't evidence of racism, I don't know what is.
David Leonhardt of the New York Times provided an excellent summary of events in January 2018 (with links to those events) that showed that Donald Trump has a long history of racism. And David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick of the Washington Post compiled a definitive list documenting Trump’s racism around that time as well.
I ask you to read George Conway's latest column proclaiming that Trump is a racist president. Conway started his column by telling the story of how a racist bigot yelled at his Mother in a parking lot to go back to the country she came from. Please pay very close attention to thow he ended his column
What’s just as bad, though, is the virtual silence from Republican leaders and officeholders. They’re silent not because they agree with Trump. Surely they know better. They’re silent because, knowing that he’s incorrigible, they have inured themselves to his wild statements; because, knowing that he’s a fool, they don’t really take his words seriously and pretend that others shouldn’t, either; because, knowing how damaging Trump’s words are, the Republicans don’t want to give succor to their political enemies; because, knowing how vindictive, stubborn and obtusely self-destructive Trump is, they fear his wrath.
But none of that is good enough. Trump is not some random, embittered person in a parking lot — he’s the president of the United States. By virtue of his office, he speaks for the country. What’s at stake now is more important than judges or tax cuts or regulations or any policy issue of the day. What’s at stake are the nation’s ideals, its very soul.
And finally, I ask you to think about what Matthew Miller said so eloquintly in a single tweet.
This is a beautiful piece by @gtconway3d. Left unsaid: how many more people in parking lots will be shouting racist attacks at moms and dads and kids because the most powerful man in the world does it for all to see. https://t.co/8jI1ExqkDV
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) July 16, 2019
Congressman Reed, your silence and refusal to denounce Donald Trump's racism is deafening. You have a responsibility as a leader, and especially as one of Trump's biggest supporters, to condemn his racism--and condemn it without qualifiers. If you fail to condemn Trump's racism for the ugly stain upon the country that it is, then I can only conclude that you have no problem with it.
Update 7/16/19: Anthony Scaramucci showed us how it's done when he condemned Trump's racist tweets.
“The President calls himself a stable genius. That tweet is unstable, it’s racist, it’s obnoxious... and you should apologize.”
Former White House Communications Director @Scaramucci shares his message to Trump regarding the President's racist tweets. https://t.co/6TlIlSM6QM pic.twitter.com/Dx06RBz6ui— CNN (@CNN) July 16, 2019
Unfortunately, only four Republicans voted to support Nancy Pelosi's resolution condemning Trump's racist tweets. I do not know yet if Tom Reed voted against the resolution or abstained from voting. What I do know is that he was not among the four who voted for it. Reed does deserve a LITTLE credit for calling Trump's remarks as "offensive" and "inappropriate", but he insisted that Trump was not a racist. His "condemnation" of Trump's tweet was weak sauce. As for as his criticism of Trump, Reed is a man of few words and no action.
