A top Republican on Sunday pushed back against assertions that President Trump was stoking racial animus among the party’s base.
“The GOP is not anti-black,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked about GOP strategist Peter Wehner’s analysis that Trump’s “racist appeals aren’t even disguised anymore.”
“I mean, look at what he said about his various opponents in the Republican primary,” Blunt continued. “I think you’ve got to be more careful in our society about what you say about people that are different than you.”
Trump in recent days has been critical of prominent African-Americans, including NBA great LeBron James, CNN anchor Don Lemon, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., taking aim in particular at their intelligence.
“There are a lot of things, for instance, you could say about Maxine Waters, but to indicate that she’s not a bright person is not one of them,” Blunt, who also serves as the Senate Republican Conference’s vice chairman, said. “She is very smart and very calculating.”
“I embrace her as a person who has given a lot of time to public service and has a different viewpoint than I do, but it’s not a viewpoint that’s not based on her factual view of the world,” he added.
