During the final presidential debate on Thursday night, NBC’s Kristen Welker, the second Black woman to ever host a presidential debate, prompted President Trump’s past rhetoric on Black Lives Matter, his failure to condemn white supremacists and his belief that Black athletes kneeling during the national anthem should be fired. Trump immediately prefaced his answer by saying that his first ‘glimpse’ of BLM protestors was of them chanting “pigs in a blanket, fry em’ like bacon” as the reason he had referred to BLM as a “terrorist” organization. He then claimed to be “the least racist person in the room,” a statement entirely contradicted by his track record on racial issues. He continued to allude to other policies his administration has implemented during his presidency that supported his claim, like prison reform and investments into HBCUs. Despite this, Trump’s approval rating amongst Black Americans has remained at 11 percent since September. More than 8-in-10 Black Americans believe that Trump is a racist according to a Washington Post poll from January.
Pro tip: Anyone that says they’re “the least racist person in the room” is in fact the most racist person in the room.
— Ato Essandoh (@AtoEssandoh) October 23, 2020
Here are a few reasons why Donald Trump isn’t actually “the least racist person” in the room:
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On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump repeatedly made explicitly racist and bigoted remarks towards Mexican immigrants calling them “criminals” and “rapists.”
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He constantly refers to the COVID-19 virus as the “Chinese Virus” and “kung-flu.”
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He stereotyped Black reporter April Ryan and insisted she was personally affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus after she asked a question about his plans to meet with them.
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In January 2018, Trump argued against restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti and African nations, calling them “shithole countries,”
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He referred to a Korean-American intelligence analyst as the “pretty Korean lady” and proceeded to ask her why she was not working on issues surrounding U.S. negotiations with North Korea, implying that people’s ethnic backgrounds should determine their jobs.
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In May 2016, Trump said Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge presiding over a class action suit against the for-profit Trump University, could not fairly hear the case because of his Mexican heritage.
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Trump allegedly called Black casino employees “lazy”, according to a 1991 book by John O’Donnell, a former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.
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He called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in 2017, after a San Bernardino shooting where a Muslim husband and wife killed 14 people and wounded 21. The executive order was one of Trump’s first actions as President of the United States.
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In January 1989, Trump spoke to Time magazine for a profile and when asked to give an estimate of his total wealth, he responded with “Who the f*** knows? I mean, really, who knows how much the Japs will pay for Manhattan property these days?”
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He was a leading figure of “birtherism,” the racist conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and was thus not fit to serve office. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2015, he said “Hey look, [Obama] wrote a book when he was a young man and it said, ‘born in Kenya, blah blah blah…“I don’t know where he was born.”
Biden responded by satirically referring to Trump as Abraham Lincoln, and called him “one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history.” He claimed Trump has poured fuel on every racist fire since entering his presidency and condemned his previous comments on the Proud Boys in the last debate.
