CNN brought their resident bigot and Trump apologist Jeffrey Lord, front and center to once again confound viewing audiences everywhere with bogus accusations against Democrats. We've heard him reach back to the 1860s to explain why Democrats are the "real racists," and now he's got a new version of that, cribbed from Dinesh D'Souza's latest boiling pot of lies about Hillary Clinton.
"Let me just set the record straight if I can about the record of the Democratic Party," Lord began. This kind of introduction is always a clue he's about to distort the record, and he did, with host Jim Sciutto's full blessing, I might add.
"[Democrats] had six platforms that supported slavery, over 20 that supported segregation or they refused to even touch the subject. They just had a convension. They couldn't even bring themselves to apologize for slavery," he said.
After shushing New York Democratic Party Basil Smikle while going on about how badly blacks have been treated by Democrats, Mr. Smikle finally got a word in edgewise.
"What has the Democratic party done for African-Americans? We elected the first black president and the first Mayor of New York," Smikle said.
After filibustering and back-and-forth where the false assertion that African-Americans on food stamps "has soared in the Obama era," Mr. Lord invoked the sacred name of Jack Kemp, calling for Trump to go "right into the heart of the African-American community to talk economics, to talk jobs." Which Trump does not do, of course. He visits white suburbs to talk to white people so they'll feel more comfortable with his racism.
"Donald Trump is no Jack Kemp. I have followed Jack Kemp in his career. He was actually a reasonable individual. Donald Trump is no Jack Kemp," Smikle countered.
Finally, Neera Tanden -- a voice of reason -- had her turn.
"It's hard to know where to start with Jeffrey Lord," she laughed. "Donald Trump started off his career attacking five innocent African-Americans in Central Park Five. He took ads out in that -- and that was 20 years ago."
Trump's other surrogate, ex-Bushie Paris Dennard, started interrupting immediately with irrelevant nonsense like the crime bill and "superpredators" but Tanden kept on.
"In this campaign he's attacked the civil rights discussion on policing and other issues, attacking people who have raised these issues," she continued. "So the reality is that the African-American community recognizes his -- that for 13 months he's been attacking civil rights heroes."
"He's been attacking the president and three months ahead of the election when he knows he's going to lose and lose badly all of a sudden he wants to do fake outreach, and I think it's actually an insult to the intelligence of African-Americans and the broader public who know his positions and have heard him over the several years -- several months talk about really attacking several issues that African-Americans are concerned about."
We've heard Jeffrey Lord spout this nonsense over and over again, as if the Democratic Party of 1869 is the same as the Democratic Party of 2016, and vice versa for Republicans. It's a ridiculous talking point, yet CNN continues to put him on as a "Trump supporter."
Thank heavens for Neera Tanden and Basil Smikle, who at least didn't let Lord get away with his lies. It's really unconscionable for CNN to keep allowing it.
