Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, defended racist grandpa Donald Trump's administration to expedite refugee status for White South Africans while broadly suspending most other refugee programs. CNN's Victor Blackwell wasn't having it.
The 59 Afrikaners who were somehow granted refugee status by the Trump administration arrived in the US on Monday. The white genocide conservatives are pushing is absolute bullshit. Just ask Errol Musk, Elon's father, who amassed a fortune during the apartheid era in South Africa. Good old Errol worked in industries that benefited from the policies of racial segregation and discrimination. But the white Afrikaners are claiming that they are being persecuted, even though there is no evidence of that.
Blackwell played a clip of Donald claiming the white farmers are being "treated brutally," adding that "we'll make a home for other people that are treated badly, no matter what their color."
Sure thing, Spanky.
"Despite the president's repeated reference, can we just start this conversation by agreeing that Afrikaners are not facing genocide?" Blackwell asked.
"Absolutely not. First of all, I have to correct the facts, Victor," McLaughlin insisted. "You said that no refugees were let in under President Donald Trump since January 20, 8,666 individuals have been granted asylum."
For the record, asylum is different than a refugee program, and one might expect an official at DHS to understand that.
"Those people have faced persecution for their politics, persecution for the color of their skin, their religion," she continued. "And that includes those 59 Afrikaners who came in this country last week, who have faced racial violence at the hands of their own government."
"They've had their land seized because of the color of their skin," she continued to lie. "There's been over 140 laws enacted that are race-based and to discriminate against racial minorities. So, I got to correct the facts where you're on, Victor, and you're wrong."
Blackwell set the record straight.
"Several things, President Ramaphosa says that although the law was signed in January, that would give the government the purview to take the land, no land has been taken from Afrikaners," he said. "Also, that's President Ramaphosa. He'll be at the White House this week. Take it up with him."
"Also, the definition of genocide is aimed at extermination, right?" he continued. "And so although there is violence in South Africa, there's violence against black South Africans, too. So when the president says that there is genocide, where is the evidence?"
"And for the thousands of people who you say were let into this country who've been granted asylum, I'm talking under the Refugee Resettlement program, which the president froze by executive order early in his administration," he added.
Nevertheless, she persisted.
"Do you recognize the fact that you are defending race-based discrimination?" she asked. "You are defending race-based violence."
"I'm not defending race-based discrimination in any way," Blackwell replied. "The president uses the term genocide. There is no genocide in South Africa. And frankly, it does a disservice to people in countries around the world who are facing genocide, in the Congo, in Sudan, those who faced it in Rwanda, and Bosnia, and Cambodia. So when the president says ..."
"There is no genocide in South Africa; it does not exist," he continued. "We should probably just start with that truth."
"Again, we have invite -- we have granted asylum to 8,666 individuals since January 20, regardless of color or creed," she said again. "It is quite frankly, disturbing to me that members of the media, including people who are on this very network, are trying to whitewash the facts and whitewash the fact that these individuals have faced discrimination, racial violence, the seizure of their land based on nothing but their skin color alone."
"So, you clearly are not going to acknowledge there's no genocide in South Africa," Blackwell shot back. "What about the genocide in the Congo? Will there be this expedited path available to the Congolese and to the Sudanese who are facing actual genocide?"
"Again, Victor, 8666 individuals have been granted asylum," she said.
Whereupon I must interject again with the fact that a DHS official should understand the difference between asylum and refugee status. Because she doesn't, I'll just say that refugees apply for status while outside the United States. They apply through the UN and are generally placed in countries without regard to their preference. Asylum seekers come to the United States, turn themselves in to law enforcement immediately and request asylum. They are then subjected to background checks, and scrutiny by a judge who will either grant or revoke status. Not the same thing.
In this case, they were white and allowed to jump the line over all the Black and brown folks waiting in line. We're told they'll "assimilate faster" than the others, which is nothing more than naked racism.
"You have a specific number on asylum," Blackwell said. "How many of those are from the Congo, from the Sudan?"
She wrongly insisted "that South Afrikaners are facing persecution."
Blackwell asked, "So you suggest that I am the one here who is focused on color of skin when the president...to which McLaughlin said "Yes."
"You haven't answered the question," Blackwell said, referring to the claims of white genocide.
Ramaphosa debunked claims that the group who left this week faced any persecution at home. “They are leaving because they do not wish to embrace the democratic transformation unfolding in South Africa,” he said
So, she's trying to frame this as, I'm not racist, you're racist. It doesn't work that way, Klanny.
