Fox News’ Mike Huckabee seemed to think that Donald Trump’s hideous birtherism was no biggie because he wasn’t a politician and, anyway, how dare African Americans call him a racist? Or at least, that's what he wants Fox viewers to think.
The party of personal responsibility couldn’t be taking less responsibility for the disgusting lie that was Donald Trump’s birtherism. Now that Trump has announced he believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States after all, Trump supporters like Huckabee think it’s water under the bridge.
In fact, Trump’s flip-flop was almost as hideously offensive as his original birtherism. He not only failed to apologize, he blamed Hillary Clinton and patted himself on the back as some kind of truth seeker.
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton, and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it – you know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again. Thank you.
As even Fox’s own Jenna Lee acknowledged, Trump was telling another big, fat lie when he said Clinton and her campaign started the birther campaign.
On The Kelly File Friday night, host Megyn Kelly first assured viewers that she was “not saying” that Trump “started it.” But, she said, “He held the flag on it and [Clinton] accused him of founding his campaign on it. He did make a huge issue out of this in 2011, 2012.”
HUCKABEE: But let’s keep in mind, at that time, Donald Trump was not a politician, he was not a political candidate. Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, they both were.
Kelly did not call out this dishonest attempt to put all the blame on the Clintons.
However, Kelly did point out that “Trump did make a huge issue out of this and even after he claims he put it to bed, when he got Barack Obama to release the long-form birth certificate, proving as had always been the case, he was born in Hawaii, he kept it up.” She cited a number of 2012 tweets where “he kept going on and on and on.” She added, “It went all the way to January of this year!”
“Look, I’m not gonna deny that Donald Trump made a lot of questions about his birth certificate,” Huckabee said. It was a sly attempt to legitimize Trump's pernicious lies as "questions." Then Huckabee deflected by attacking the Congressional Black Caucus for taking the birtherism too seriously and too personally. "They repeatedly said Donald Trump is a bigot, he’s a racist, he’s been a racist his whole life. Now what evidence is there for that? There’s none!” Huckabee accused.
Oh, there’s plenty of evidence for that. In an eye-opening article called “Here Are 13 Examples of Donald Trump Being Racist,” the Huffington Post makes a more than adequate case. Not only was Trump's real estate company sued twice for not renting to African Americans, HuffPo notes how “discrimination against black people has been a pattern in his career.”
Kelly, not surprisingly, didn’t lay out the very damning evidence. She played it like a “he said/they said” between Trump and African Americans. “They believe that, what they say is, the attempt to delegitimize the first black president is in itself bigoted and racist,” she said about the Congressional Black Caucus.
“If they can show that what he was saying was because he was black, then they’ve got a point. But they can’t do that,” Huckabee insisted. As if the racism isn't evidence on its face.
“It sounds like they are all sucking from the same helium balloon ‘cause they all have that same shrill voice and say the exact same words, as if they’re reading a script,” Huckabee whined.
That's the Trump campaign for you: act like a racist bully, then play the victim when you get called out.
Sorry, Huckabee, I think there are plenty of people who are not going to let Trump off the hook about this.
Nor should they.
Watch it above, from the August 16 The Kelly File.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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