CNN anchor humiliates GOP chair over Trump’s racist ad

Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel flamed out spectacularly when she was forced to answer for Trump’s false and racist ad demonizing undocumented immigrants.

On Sunday morning’s edition of CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper repeatedly asked McDaniel if she had “any problem” with an ad that was too racist for CNN to run, and that was riddled with falsehoods.

The ad, which was produced for the Trump campaign, features video of convicted cop murderer Luis Bracamontes and falsely blames Democrats for allowing him into the country.

In fact, however, it was under the administration of George W. Bush that Bracamontes returned to commit the murders, after he had been deported twice.

McDaniel stood by the ad, claiming that Trump was trying to “highlight” problems with the immigration system.

“It’s factually inaccurate, and it’s racially incendiary — you don’t have any issue with that?” Tapper asked, on his fifth attempt to get McDaniel to answer for the ad.

“I have an issue with our immigration system that’s not being fixed,” McDaniel began, then launched into a digression attempting to blame Democrats for the lack of  immigration reform in America.

But as Tapper pointed out, Trump “is inaccurately blaming [Democrats]” for letting a “cop killer” into the country, since “the last time he came into the country was under George W Bush.”

Moreover, as Tapper pointed out, the killer depicted in the ad was once released from jail by Trump ally and pardon recipient Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

When McDaniel tried to shift the blame to former President Bill Clinton, Tapper pointed out that Clinton deported him.

“Is it the Democrats’ fault?” Tapper pressed. “Was his presence in the United States the Democrats’ fault?”

“It’s a systemic failure,” McDaniel dodged.

“Yes! That’s true!” an exasperated Tapper responded.

Yet once again, McDaniel insisted that it was Democrats who should be “fixing the immigration problem.”

“Democrats, the minority party, should be fixing the immigration problem?” Tapper asked incredulously. “You control the White House, the House, and the Senate. The White House, the House, and the Senate. You control them all.”

“We do not have a filibuster-proof Senate, we only have 51 senators,” McDaniel said.

“It’s not the Senate — you couldn’t get legislation through the House,” Tapper pointed out.

What’s more, Democrats actually reached an agreement with Trump on some immigration policies earlier this year. But, as even Sarah Huckabee Sanders conceded this week, it was Trump who walked away from the deal.

Trump’s ad was such an obviously racist attempt to demonize Latino immigrants that CNN refused to run it.

In response to a Donald Trump, Jr. tweet criticizing the network for not running it, CNN tweeted, “CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist. When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts.”

It should surprise no one that the leader of the national Republican Party stood by the racism and the lies in Trump’s ad. But it’s always encouraging when journalists take a stand against that racism, and hold people like McDaniel accountable when they try to defend it.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.