yes. yes. and i m not saying that as somebody painting it with a brush the evidence shows that. the first time he appeared in the press in the new york times was because he was not renting his apartment to black people. then he takes out a full page ad about the death penalty for a crime. he never apologized. the birther controversy is one of the all-star hits of racism in this country. accusing president obama of not being a citizen of this country. all of that stuff is racism. it s all racism. i m not as scared of the word racism as some people are. i m not either. people always say you can t call somebody a racist. you can call someone a misogynist, sexist. you can say they re a womanizer, but when you say racesest, even if the evidence points to that i m not saying you said it. but even if it the evidence points to it
is in its full splendor and glory. my friends have known who this dude was and now he s showing it to us and now the challenge is for those who have been supporting him to spoke up the way some republicans have spoken up. is he racist? is he racist? yes. yes. and i m not saying that as somebody pantding it with a brush the evidence shows that. the first time he appeared in the pres in the new york times was because he was not renting his apartment to black people. then he takes out a full page ad about the death penalty for a crime. he never apologized. the birther controversy is one of the all-star hits of racism in this country. accusing president obama of not being a citizen of this country. all of that stuff is racism. it s all racism. i m not as scared of the word racism as some people are. i m not either.
fine. why won t the party ever push back? that s the perennial question. i m glad you found that clip. that is the newly installed rnc chairman reince priebus in his very first nationally televised interview. there s a book end in the tale of priebus and trump. the controversy he first had to deal with was trump s birther controversy. the contention, the slander that barack obama was not born in the united states, and as you can see from that clip, even back then in 2010, 2011, republican leaders were really jellyfish when it came to the idea or the need to stand up to trump who at that point wasn t a serious presidential candidate, and now flash forward several years and that same man is donald trump s chief of staff. the white house continues to
spying at trump tower ordered by the prior administration. that said, when the president was pressed about this today, you played one of the i think if not the headline moment of the press conference just now, that sort of revival of what was at the time a hugely embarrassing diplomatic incident in order for the president to not back down or at least deflect from his claim that president obama broke the law, right? kind of a complicated threading of the needle there, but it was certainly something that was highly notable coming out of the press conference. that said, will the president back down? well, he hasn t often. he almost never does. you heard him asked false he regretted his tweets. and he said very seldom. and that incapsulated a little bit of the president s world view. as you know, once he says something, it takes a whole lot to back down. for example, the only example that comes to mind which is the birther controversy. the birther issue that he started or was a leader of
surveillance that occurred in the 2016 election. the president used the word wiretap in quotes to broadly surveillance and other activities. okay. let s note two of the president s tweets. allege he was wiretapped. two did have quotes. these two did not. take a good hard look at that. the president was tapping my phones in october. just prior to the election. how low has president obama gone to tap my phones. love that extra p. during the sacred election process. this is nixon watergate. what if there is no evidence? will he apologize or take it back? remember on birther? this is like the birther controversy and the president changed and dodged and weaved. then ultimately said yes, i was