Among the worst of his irresponsible accomplishments, Donald Trump is reviving the loathsome tactic of exploiting racial and religious animosities for political gain.
The Republican front-runner’s false claim about Muslims celebrating 9/11 and his wildly wrong assertion that most white murder victims are killed by blacks are a variant of the white-power racial stances that once kept Southern politicians in business.
DONALD TRUMP BRUSHES OFF BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT
He spun his 9/11 tale at an Alabama rally:
“I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
Informed on ABC’s “This Week” that “the police say that didn’t happen,” Trump insisted:
“It was on television. I saw it,” adding: “I know they don’t like to talk about it, but it was well covered at the time. There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”
No such thing was ever broadcast on TV because no such thing ever happened. In the best light, he and rival Ben Carson, who also claimed to have seen a video himself before his campaign talked back the candidate’s claim, may remember cheers that rose from East Jerusalem.
All Trump could come up to substantiate his fable was a paragraph from the Sept. 18, 2001, Washington Post, stating that, after the planes hit, law enforcement officials “detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks” on rooftops.
KING: TRUMP’S UNAPOLOGETIC RACISM BREEDS DANGEROUS HYSTERIA
Nothing came of even that supposed small-scale partying, or of similar debunked rumors. In hyping his fable post-Paris, Trump trolls for votes from the segment of voters who believe that many American Muslims harbor suspect loyalties or worse.
At the same time, in disseminating bogus murder statistics, Trump taps into the racial passions of voters who hold up African-American crime rates to explain away complaints about police use of force against blacks , as well as to point to the supposed “real threat” — namely, violent blacks.
A graphic disseminated by Trump to his nearly 5 million followers states that blacks are responsible for 81% of the murders of white Americans. In fact, according to the FBI, blacks kill just 15% of white murder victims.
A liar and demagogue, Trump is disgracefully, destructively trafficking in ideas befitting a skin-head while running for President.
