New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay said Sen. Ron Johnson’s comments that Black Lives Matter rioters are more threatening than the Capitol rioters was a “disgusting and grotesque” display of racism that has been made acceptable by former President Donald Trump.
“We have Donald Trump to thank for this wonderfully disgusting and grotesque outpouring of open racism, the likes of which we really haven’t seen … in a mainstream cultural sense, I would say, since the 1950s, if not the 1920s,” Gay said in response to Johnson’s comments.
.@MaraGay: “We have Donald Trump to thank for this wonderfully disgusting and grotesque outpouring of open racism, the likes of which we really haven’t seen… in a mainstream cultural sense, I would say, since the 1950s, if not the 1920s.”
Read more: https://t.co/FY2SjAGXmB pic.twitter.com/e5igQyK1g5
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 16, 2021
In an interview with a radio program last week, Johnson said he did not feel unsafe during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, saying that he believed that most of the crowd that stormed the building were “people that love this country” and “truly respect law enforcement.”
“Had the tables been turned and President Donald Trump won the election and those were thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters. I would have been concerned,” Johnson continued.
MEDIA CONTINUE TO DOWNPLAY IMPACT OF SUMMER RIOTS WHILE CONDEMNING US CAPITOL SIEGE
The Wisconsin Republican sparked outrage from Democratic politicians, and the Democratic group American Bridge 21st Century called on the senator to resign over what it said it sees as racist comments. Johnson has insisted there was “no racism involved” in his remarks.
Gay continued that Republicans such as Johnson were attempting to gaslight the public about racism.
“If you ask any black American of any age, they will tell you that what it means to be a black American is sometimes just to be gaslit by the rest of the country, to be told, ‘You aren’t seeing what’s in front of your face,’” Gay said, adding that black people are being told that they are the threat despite being the group that has been “oppressed for generations.”
“You can literally have a white mob attack the seat of democracy, bash the heads of police officers, and still, you are the threat because you’re black,” Gay continued. “It is the blackness and the whiteness that is just the screaming elephant in the room in this case, and I think we’re really confronted now with the fact that a majority of the country, not just black Americans, is now being gaslit.”
Gay argued that Johnson’s tactics are not new but instead a common occurrence throughout history when a desperate party is seeking power.
“Whenever, in the course of American history, you have petty, lazy, small-minded politicians who don’t want to show real leadership or build real coalitions or offer real solutions to the American people, whenever they are desperate for power, they turn to racism,” Gay said. “This is really a sign, in my opinion, of the desperation of the Republican Party in this moment. This is really the easiest, lowest hanging fruit: When all else fails, blame black people.”
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In response to the backlash, Johnson said the damage across the country over the summer was the reason he would have felt less safe if the situation was reversed.
“Out of 7,750 protests last summer associated with BLM and Antifa, 570 turned into violent riots that killed 25 people and caused $1 billion-$2 billion of property damage,” Johnson said. “That’s why I would have been more concerned.”
