Red state newspaper rips Republicans for 'cowardly' response to Trump's racism

As Trump continues his unrelenting, racist attacks against four congresswomen, the silence from Republicans has been deafening. One red state newspaper has had enough.

On Thursday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board wrote a scathing editorial calling out Trump’s racism and the anemic response from Republican lawmakers.

“At a moment that requires a clear denunciation of this deeply un-American rhetoric, most Republican members of Congress from the St. Louis region, as around the nation, have offered only shameful silence,” the editorial board said.

Republicans haven’t rebuked Trump, even after the mostly white crowd at Trump’s rally chanted that a black congresswoman should go back to Africa. Trump did nothing to stop the chant as he basked in the spotlight onstage.

The latest incarnation of Trump’s racist rhetoric began Sunday when he attacked four congresswomen of color, telling them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

The women Trump was referring to are Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

Telling people of color to “go back” to where they came from “is intended to deprive people of their Americanness based on skin color and ethnicity. It’s racist to its core, and those who don’t call it out enable it,” the editorial board said.

The Post-Dispatch notes that a few Missouri Republicans have offered tepid repudiations of Trump’s rhetoric, including Sen. Roy Blunt and Rep. Ann Wagner. However, their statements “were couched in timid both-siderism, calling out Democratic policy views as if their offenses were on par with Trump’s.”

Overall, the response from Republicans has been “a cowardly, mute void,” the editorial board said.

How a politician responds to Trump’s racism “is no longer merely an indicator of party loyalty or policy priorities; it has become a test of courage, character and fundamental decency,” the editorial board concluded. “And these elected officials have failed it.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.