Is Donald Trump racist? “No question,” is what New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said of Trump during an interview.
Ocasio-Cortez sat down with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” and discussed how while Trump “certainly didn’t invent racism. But he’s certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things.” “Do you believe President Trump is a racist?” Cooper asked. “Yeah, yeah, no question,” Ocasio-Cortez replied.
“When you look at the words that he uses, which are historic dog whistles of white supremacy. When you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it’s night and day,” she continued.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
In a statement to CBS, the White House said in response to her comments that “Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s sheer ignorance on the matter can’t cover the fact that President Trump supported and passed historic criminal justice reform … (and) has repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms.”
Ocasio-Cortez who is a well-known critic of Trump and Republicans was sworn into her first term in Congress last week. The White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s request to comment. “I certainly think it’s a valid question, and it’s one that a lot of voters were interested in having in the run-up to the election,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN. “It’s a legitimate discussion to have.”
