Newsnight anchor Abby Phillip took apart MAGA apologist Arthur Aidala's ridiculous assertion that no one supports Trump's racist behavior.
During a discussion on Trump's childish, racist, late-night racist post on Truth Social depicting the Obamas as apes, attorney and CNN regular Arthur Aidala responded to his fellow panel member Ashley Allison's critique of how damaging this stuff from Trump is by pretending it's not a rot we're seeing from a whole host of them on the right. That notion was promptly shot down by Phillip:
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But, look, I think that as a person with eyes and ears, I'm not surprised that this is who Donald Trump is, but this is the problem, is that every time he does something that signifies racism, that signifies being a racist, the goalpost moves. It's, oh, it shouldn't have been 30.
Let me tell you why people can come to the conclusion about his racist behaviors. Because in the 70s when you discriminated against black people in housing, that was racist. In the 80s and 90s when he called for the execution of the Central Park 5, only for them to be exonerated because they did not commit the crime against a white woman, reflecting what Abby talked in her opening segment, that was a racist. And even after they were exonerated, he still called for them to be prosecuted. That is racist behavior.
When he ran for the first term, he birthed his career off of demonizing a black man and saying he wasn't American and that he wasn't one of us.
In his actual first term, he called African countries shithole and asshole countries. And then most recently, he posts monkeys. He said they were eating the cats and dogs.
I don't have to take one second of a video that he says he does not -- he did not see. Problematic point, blank period should be enough, but there's a history of it. So, what are we supposed to say? Oh, just keep moving the goalposts until we're literally in the depths of hell? No. His behavior is his behavior.
And at one point in time, over the last four weeks, let's just say, though, next, last four weeks, children will look and say, and I think they will refer this time period to the time period where little black kids walked into segregated schools and there were people screaming at them, calling the most obscene words possible. And I just plead with people, you don't want to be those people that wanted to stop segregation. You have to stand in the gap and call a right a right and a wrong a wrong. And you can still support his policies, but you cannot support that behavior.
ARTHUR AIDALA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I don't -- like I'm not -- I haven't heard anyone supporting that behavior. I mean, I haven't heard anyone supporting that behavior. But maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't heard anyone say that's a good thing, and as we all know --
PHILLIP: I'll give you one example if you want. I mean, actually, let me take that. I have a few examples,
AIDALA: But the biggest thing is he took it down, so he's not supportive of it.
PHILLIP: I know the points you're making. But just to point out, there's a divide here, right? There are the people, lawmakers, who, you know, are criticizing him, and then there's Laura Loomer who advises the president, is there all the time. She says Donald Trump did nothing wrong. Nobody has done more for black people than Donald Trump. She also called for Tim Scott to be -- she called for Tim Scott to resign because he condemned Trump. You've got Benny Johnson saying, a hoax, you got tricked into falling for by Democrats. Dinesh D'Souza says, in context, this is both amusing and harmless, another race hoax from the left. There's more, another case of Trump derangement syndrome, et cetera, et cetera.
There are these people and then there are also the Republicans who will condemn this as if it is a thing in isolation. But Trump keeps doing it over and over and over again. And I think, you know, to Dinesh D'Souza's point, when Democrats bring up race, it's always because they're using it as a weapon, but, actually, Trump is bringing up race all the time and using it as a political weapon.
It's who they are and always have been.
