This entire week, I've seen Republicans try to wrestle with Trump's overt racism, without confronting the past four decades of racism that underpinned the success of the entire Republican project. Why are so few Republicans willing to acknowledge it, and apologize for not confronting it in the past?
I've seen a lot of Republicans on social media this week who insist they "didn't know." You didn't know? The same people who have such a finely tuned sense of moral discernment that they can't "in good conscience" bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, or permit their tax dollars to include birth control pills in public insurance, people who argue endlessly about how many angels can dance on the end of a Republican pin -- those people didn't notice the glaring moral wrong of racism?
They didn't say anything because they got what they wanted. They got the power, they got the cash, they got the Supreme Court seats, they got the sense of smug superiority. It was so much easier to be a Republican when the person in the Oval Office wasn't making the racism so very, very hard to ignore. And now the taint has washed over all of them. You can't miss it.
And we will never let them forget it.
On The View, Ana Navarro cut loose on prominent Republicans for their silence in face of Trump's racism while Meghan McCain and Joy Behar joined in.
"This is so bad. It's like nothing I have ever seen, and I don't think anyone in this room has ever seen before, and you can't beat this. This is blatant racism. What does this say about your party?"
"Let's take issue with that. When he was running, he was blatantly racist and he won," Joy Behar said.
"I do think this is -- I think this is him running in 2016, but on acid, as I have said before. He's taking his old ways of ginning up people's, you know, racism and xenophobia," McCain said.
Navarro said she commended McCain for calling it racism "because it is what it is, and I think we have got to call racism -- "
"it's not that hard. That's why it's sad," McCain said.
"It's been a hell of a lot harder for a lot of Republicans to do. We have seen a lot of Republicans, people that you and I know who would have been able to do it before this, contort themselves into ridiculous shapes all this week trying to say it was not racist. We have seen the majority leader in the senate who is married to a Chinese woman say that this isn't racist.
"I have seen Marco Rubio, whose parents came here, fleeing poverty, who represent the community where they were told, 'We won't rent to Cubans, to blacks or to dogs. You can't drink from this water fountain.' I have seen him try to justify this. I have seen him call people who are outraged like me -- he calls it 'self-righteous hypocrites.' I'll show you what self-righteous hypocrisy this is. Tweeting bible verses every day, and remaining silent," Navarro said.
"Preach, girl," Sunny Hostin said.
"That is self-righteous of racism. Do you know what self-righteous hypocrisy, representing a community of Venezuelans, and Cubans, and Haitians, people who hear it are from. Every day, 'go back to where you came from' and somehow trying to play this as two sides,"
"Who is it again?"
"Marco Rubio."
"Rick Santorum said it on CNN as well," Behar said.
"He was really raw emotion. You're not the first person I have seen like this this week. A lot of people, and hardworking conservatives I know are very, very, very upset," McCain said.
"I'm so sorry to hear that. Why don't they open their mouths?" Behar said.
"Because some of them -- you know what, Joy? Because some of them are private citizens and friends of mine that don't have the kind of platforms we do." McCain said she was talking about ordinary citizens.
"I'm sorry my friend Sara in Scottsdale doesn't have the same platform I do," McCain said.
"We're not referring to that. We're talking about Republican leadership. We're referring to Mitch McConnell," Behar said.
"They are not walking around the streets of New York City, and you are tagged with this right now. It is humiliating. It's embarrassing. It's -- I don't know what to do about it anymore. I have said this all week, and the fact that we are tainted with this as Republicans and conservatives, yes, it's cowardice on the other side. I don't know what else I can do, other than we are calling out as loud as we can with the platforms we have, and by the way, there are some people. Tom Emmer, Congressman Adam Kinsinger, who never disappoints me. Mark Walker, there are other Republicans who have tried it. I say, where is Ivanka? Where is Mike Pence? Where is Jared Kushner in all of this?" McCain asked.
"I want to tell you what we can do about it. We do not vote for this guy. I don't care about the Supreme Court justices. I don't care about the tax bill. I don't care about anything else. We cannot justify voting for a racist," Navarro said.
