Democratic lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said racists make up a core part of Trump’s supporter base.
Speaking in an interview with ‘Pod Save America’ host and former Obama administration staffer Jon Favreau on Thursday, Orcasio-Cortez spelled out her views on support for Donald Trump.
‘Trump becomes President and there’s this debate about “Are Trump voters racist?” And clearly you see the rallies, you see some of the stuff online and there’s racism there,’ Favreau said.
‘And then I wonder, I don’t necessarily want to vilify people who vote for Trump, but at the same time you also need to call racism out but I don’t know, even beyond Trump, how we piece this back together.’
Ocasio-Cortez responded by saying the debate should not be about asking if Trump voters are racist, but rather racism as a concept.
Democratic lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (pictured) said racists make up a core part of Trump’s supporter base, speaking with podcast host Don Favreau on Thursday
Speaking in an interview with ‘Pod Save America’ host and former Obama administration staffer Jon Favreau (pictured, right) on Thursday, Orcasio-Cortez spelled out her views on support for Donald Trump
‘We need to talk about racism, its contours, its histories, where it manifests, how its used,’ she states.
She went on to say that Trump relied on a coalition, and a ‘core part’ of that coalition were ‘racist’ and others were ‘susceptible to racist views if they were blanketed and layered and made people feel good about it not being a racist thing.’
According to Ocasio-Cortez, there are a lot of Trump supporters who don’t believe they are racist because people are not ‘educated on recognizing racism’.
She went on to conclude people justify their racism by saying their views are economic in nature.
‘And then a person uses their defensiveness and they say, “Well it’s not racist because I’m not racist and I believe in this thing because it’s economic in nature,”‘ she said.
Her comments come as her fellow Congresswomen and members of the ‘squad’, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, were barred from entering Israel for their public support of the BDS movement.
The two lawmakers – the first Muslim women elected to Congress – are outspoken supporters of Palestine and support the boycott Israel movement that wants the country to abandon the occupied territories.
Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday announced they would not be granted entry for a visit scheduled for this weekend – an announcement that came about an hour after Trump tweeted his objection to it.
Trump welcomed the decision, telling reporters in New Jersey on Tuesday: ‘They are so anti-Israel, so anti-Jewish.’
The lawmakers, in return, expressed their fury at the ban and took the opportunity to criticize Netanyahu for his treatment of Palestinians.
Omar accused Netanyahu of implementing Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ against two members of Congress, a reference to the administration’s policy to ban refugees from seven Muslim countries, including her birthplace of Somalia.
Trump praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for banning Democratic lawmakers Ilhan Omar (left) and Rashida Tlaib (right) from visiting this weekend
Donald Trump criticized Muslim lawmakers Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib as ‘so anti-Israel, so anti-Jewish’
‘It is an affront that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, under pressure from President Trump, would deny entry to representatives of the U.S. government. Trump’s Muslim ban is what Israel is implementing, this time against two duly elected Members of Congress,’ the Minnesota Democrat said in a statement.
She added it was ‘not a surprise’ that the two were forbidden from their trip, which was organized by a Palestinian lawmaker and included a stop at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. It sits close to the site of the Second Temple, the holiest site in Judaism, making it a contentious issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
‘Sadly, this is not a surprise given the public positions of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has consistently resisted peace efforts, restricted the freedom of movement of Palestinians, limited public knowledge of the brutal realities of the occupation and aligned himself with Islamophobes like Donald Trump,’ the congresswoman said.
Tlaib, meanwhile, tweeted a photo of her grandmother Muftia Tlaib, who lives in the occupied West Bank, and said Israel’s decision to ‘bar her granddaughter’ from visiting was a ‘sign of weakness.’
Omar said it was ‘not a surprise’ that the two were forbidden from their trip, which was organized by a Palestinian lawmaker and included a stop at the Al-Aqsa Mosque