Shame on CNN for putting former Senator Rick "blah people" Santorum on this panel in the first place. What does he have to contribute to this discussion other than gaslighting and making lame and laughable excuses for Trump's attacks on the four freshman Congresswomen of color, and the racist chants of "send her back" at his rally in North Carolina last week?
During a panel discussion on this Sunday's State of the Union, Mr. "Please don't Google my name" was asked about the rally and his praise of the rally-goers as "incredible patriots," by host Dana Bash. After Santorum tried to pretend that it wasn't really a racist attack and that he was only going after the women over policy differences, Santorum was ripped to shreds by the other the other guests on the show, who did a much better job than the host at tearing apart the notion that these attacks were about anything other than stoking fear and racial divisions among Americans.
CUPP: That's a much better way of saying what he's saying. (crosstalk)
SANTURM: But the point is if he said it that way, no one would be talking about this this morning.
CUPP: Correct.
SANTURUM: He says things to bring attention to these issues, and I know it's hair on fire time for everybody on the left, but we're talking about this.
CUPP: I'm not on the left. I'm a Republican. It's hair on fire for me because it's disgusting and because it's un-American. And because this is not conservatism. This is not patriotism. This is division. This is pure racism and marginalizing people who happen to have some criticisms of our country. I don't like those criticisms Congressman, you know, that that, Senator. You know that, but there is a difference between pointing out those criticisms and turning Americans against Americans to get elected.
FINNEY: But there is also an important difference as the black woman at this table, if you have not had somebody get in your face and say go back to Africa, and as a 6-year-old, I'm like, what? It's very confusing. It's very upsetting. It is an old racist trope to say go back where you came from. To say it about four women of color, black and brown women, when we know that the fundamental issue that he is, what he's really trying to do here is stoke racism, bigotry and fear.
It's what he did it in 2016. It's what he's doing in 2020 and I'll tell you something, PEW just came out with a poll that showed last month that actually independents don't like it. People feel embarrassed. People feel disgusted by it. So I think that.... hold on, I think that the danger for the Republican party on this as your base continues to shrink, I don't know how you make an argument to women or people of color that they should join the Republican party. What we're also seeing is, as we saw in 2018, independents, moderates, moving away because they are so disgusted.
BASH: Let's get you in.
ALI: It's good to know that racism means that you're incredibly patriotic in 2019 America, because I get told nearly every single day, Dana, on the social media to go back home even though I was born and raised in this country and it's interesting that they never follow it up with questions able my economic and political ideology.
It's very interesting that Donald Trump tells four Congresswomen of color, three of whom were born and raise in this country, remember that country Ohio, that racidal Muslim country Ohio, yeah, the country of Ayanna Pressley? He tells them to go back home to their country, but Bernie Sanders, a Democratic Socialist is never told to go back home to his country.
And then he doubles down with a 13-second chant. And I just want people to really think about this. What does it say about this country when Donald Trump ignites a nativist chant that used against Italians, Eastern European Jews and Catholics, “send her back” for 13 seconds, basks in it and says those people are incredible patriots.
The question I have are two questions. Is it racist? It's racist, period. The questions I have, what are the repercussions of this racism on Americans, especially communities of color? You can ask us and number two, is this the vision of America for Republicans going forward? That 13-second clip of incredible patriots using a nativist chant “send her back home,” is this the vision of America for Republicans?
SANTORUM: No, it's not. And here's the problem that you have in claiming that this is racist. I would agree, the fact he picked out four women, although they have sort of identified themselves as the squad, so it's not like he picked them out. They are an identified group. The fact they are all people of color in my lens is problematic. But, what he is criticizing them for is not the color of their skin, he's criticizing them for the positions they take.
CUPP: If they were white, would he say go back to your own country?!?
SANTUROM: If the squad included white people, he would be just as equally critical.
CUPP: He would not say go back to your own country!
SANTORUM: I disagree.
FINNEY: That is exactly what he was doing.
ALI: Go back to Fremont, California. That's what he was doing.
After S.E. Cupp and Dana Bash gave John McCain way more credit than he deserved given the rhetoric coming out of his running mate on a daily basis, Bash asked Santorum whether he thinks “this is the right strategy for the leader of the Republican party?”
ALI: Women of color.
SANTORUM: And these four people exemplify, in the worst possible terms in my mind, that the... how extreme the Democratic party has gone. The fact there are four women of color is problematic and leads to the issue of racism, but here is the problem with the Democrats. Every issue is a race issue. The Democrats call wolf all the time on the issue --
FINNEY: That's not true. (crosstalk)
SANTORUM: He's making it easy on this case, but the fact but the fact is they've lost credibility on this issue.
ALI: You know what I call racism? When racists behave like racists and this weekend Donald Trump had a chance to walk back and he retweeted Katy Hopkins. You know who she is? An extremist who's so far to the right that the right in Britain says we don't want her. A woman who says she wants a final solution on Muslims, blamed the Jews in Pittsburgh for their own massacre because she said the chief rabbi is actually pro-migrants and she pals around with a white supremacists. He retweeted her four times. President Trump, the racist.
BASH: Stand by, we'll talk about the fight, including to take on president Trump.
You know who has lost credibility on this issue? CNN, for putting this bigot on to excuse another bigot in the first place.
