In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, CNN's John Harwood reported on Monday's CNN Newsroom that the White House was considering holding a listening session with black leaders. Harwood also cast doubt on the effectiveness of such a session, because somehow the Democrats in the 1960s were the party of civil rights, and the Republicans were not.
Harwood tried to explain, "But it's more than just Donald Trump, it's also his party. Remember the seminal event, a seminal event in the development of the modern Republican Party was a civil rights movement in the 1960s, national Democrats embraced it, national Republicans did not."
That is of course false. It was Republicans who helped pass civil rights legislation because Democratic politicians that filibustered it despite the fact they controlled both houses of Congress and almost all those Democrats remained Democrats. Some became their party's Senate leader, and some mentored the current Democratic nominee for president.
Harwood then claimed, "you had millions and millions of racially conservative whites move into the Republican Party and that’s where the center of gravity is."
His proof of Republican backwardness was a Pew Research poll, "59% of Americans, of Republicans said that they thought the legacy of slavery had little or nothing to do with the plight of blacks today. 77% said they thought the biggest problem with race discrimination was seeing it where it did not exist. 84% said America has either done enough or too much to bring equal rights to blacks."
What those questions have to do with what happened in Minneapolis was not said, but it apparently provides evidence that the White House is out of touch partisan, "
When you hear those numbers, not surprising that the president's national security adviser says he doesn't see systemic racism or the president takes the tone he's taken so far. He always indicators in a pinch to his political base and that's where his political base is, guys."
Here is a transcript for his June 1 remarks:
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
9:55 AM ET
JOHN HARWOOD: But it's more than just Donald Trump, it's also his party. Remember the seminal event, a seminal event in the development of the modern Republican Party was a civil rights movement in the 1960s, national Democrats embraced it, national Republicans did not and you had millions and millions of racially conservative whites move into the Republican Party and that’s where the center of gravity is. Consider this, a Pew Research Center poll that came out last year: 59% of Americans, of Republicans said that they thought the legacy of slavery had little or nothing to do with the plight of blacks today. 77% said they thought the biggest problem with race discrimination was seeing it where it did not exist. 84% said America has either done enough or too much to bring equal rights to blacks. When you hear those numbers, not surprising that the president's national security adviser says he doesn't see systemic racism or the president takes the tone he's taken so far. He always indicators in a pinch to his political base and that's where his political base is, guys.
