Today is clean-up day on aisle Pastor Mark Burns for the Trump campaign, so who better to drag out than former Representative Jack Kingston? He's really a great guy when it comes to cleaning up the mess Trump surrogates leave behind.
This is how he decided to defend Burns' disgusting tweet showing Hillary Clinton in blackface and subsequent behavior on cable news networks later on in the day.
"I think we all agree it is unacceptable. I think it's important that he took down that post almost immediately," Kingston said. "He's apologized twice. It wasn't anything that was coordinated, of course."
Of course it wasn't. But Kingston, like other Trump surrogates, just can't quit while he's ahead.
"But you know, when you think about it, Jeremiah Wright very controversial statements were not held against Barack Obama, " he continued.
Host Craig Melvin jumped in immediately. "Congressman, that's not true. You and I both remember two weeks of ad nauseam coverage connecting the Reverend and President Obama."
To put an exclamation point on it, Melvin chided Kingston, telling him not to say "this is bad, but...Just say this is bad, move on!"
Kingston did abandon the Reverend Wright talking point, but tried again in several ways to draw some weird lines of equivalence between Burns' behavior and other surrogates, before finally giving up and conceding that Burns is a "rogue surrogate" who shouldn't reflect badly on the campaign.
Don't go there, Trump surrogates. Do NOT start with the Reverend Wright nonsense. You will regret it.
My compliments to Craig Melvin for firmly and quickly shutting it down. More truth like this, please.
