Congressmember Jayapal asked if she believes President Trump is racist

KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross knew it was a loaded question when he asked Congressmember Pramila Jayapal, “Do you think the president is a racist?”

It was less than a second before Jayapal fired back with a firm “Yes, I do.”

“…he is willing to promote white supremacist ideas that fundamentally undermine the equality of people and use race as a way to divide the American people, and he fundamentally believes those things,” she said. “He believes that black people are lesser than, or inferior to white people.”

Jayapal represents Washington’s 7th Congressional District, covering much of Seattle and Vashon Island.

This is beyond politics, this is Donald Trump

Of course, there is a range of context that can be drawn from President Donald Trump’s actions and statements. For example, the president once said there were good people on both sides of an issue around removing controversial, historical statues and monuments. One of those sides happened to include neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members, however. And then, days later, the president comments that such groups are repugnant.

Or when Trump tells four Congress members to go back to where they came from (all American citizens) because he perceives they have negative views of the country. Then again, telling people to go back to where they came from is rhetoric historically used by white supremacists.

Does that mean Trump is a white supremacist? Does he believe in a white homeland or setting up an ethnostate as many white supremacists strive for?

“If you asked me if he is a white supremacist, I would say ‘What I know is that he surrounds himself with white supremacists.’ Does that make him a white supremacist? I really don’t know,” Jayapal said. “Is he trying to get a country that only has white people in it? I don’t know, but he is surrounding himself with people who want that.”

People like KKK member and former grand wizard David Duke have publicly stated that Donald Trump is their guy.

“I have been yelled at multiple times, told to go home back to my own country; I have been here since I was 16 years old,” she said. “But I’ve never had that happen from somebody in the White House. I just have to ask: What kind of a country do we want to be? Do we want to be a country that stands up for people no matter where they come from; a country that has been defined by immigrants who came here willing and unwilling on slave ships and to escape persecution? Do we want to be that place where regardless of the color of your skin, it is about being able to achieve opportunity? Or do we want to be a place that says there is only one kind of American?”

10 items or less and no racism in the grocery line

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