Rand Paul: Trump's 'Shithole' Comments Were Not Racist

[DonViejo]

Source: Newsweek Magazine




BY CARLOS BALLESTEROS ON 1/14/18 AT 10:55 AM

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said Sunday that it is "unfair" to call President Donald Trump a racist off of his reported remarks about immigrants from the "shithole countries" of Haiti and the continent of Africa.

“I don’t think the comments were constructive at all, but I also think that, to be fair, we shouldn’t draw conclusions that he didn’t intend,” the Kentucky Republican said on NBC's Meet The Press.

As proof that the president isn't racist, Paul brought up a medical trip financed in part by Trump to provide eye care and surgeries to a couple hundred people in Haiti in 2015. “I think it’s unfair to sort of paint him, ‘oh well, he’s a racist,’ when I know for a fact that he cares very deeply about the people of Haiti because he helped finance a trip where they would get vision back for 200 people in Haiti,” Paul said.

Trump's comments came during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday in the Oval Office. According to multiple reports, including testimony from Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who was present at the meeting, Trump questioned why the United States attracted a large number of immigrants and refugees from "shithole countries" such as Haiti. Trump also reportedly wondered why the U.S. didn't have more immigrants from predominantly white and economically stable countries like Norway.


Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/trump-shithole-rand-paul-racist-haiti-africa-immigrants-780985

[theaocp]

1. Fuck you, Rand, you lickspittle toady. n/t

[BigmanPigman]

2. This makes Paul a racist in my view.

[benld74]

3. Didnt realize he was concussed during neighbor spat

[Liberalagogo]

4. How is Rand able to speak

with his tongue up the Shithole?

[gibraltar72]

5. Yummm!

[JCMach1]

6. Well, when you come from a shithole state like Kentucky

No elitism in my statement...


Notice how that works, Rand?

[Motley13]

7. I bet I contribute more to Haiti in one year than the moron has in his whole

self-absorbed life.

Those poor people have been through so much.

[onecaliberal]

8. Another whitesplaining fuck.

Before you flame me I am a white woman. People are tired of republican white men commenting on the life experiences of folks with black and brown skin and women.

[still_one]

9. and one racist to another racist should know. Just like his racist father

[Corgigal]

10. Ok, I'll play.

Then I can draw the conclusion that you and you're neighbor, the one that gave you 5 broken ribs, were not really fighting over the landscaping.

Didn't even want to report it ? Seems kind of passionate to me.

Trump provided funds for eye surgeries? Prove it, or it didn't happen.

Moved here to vote all you guys out. This little state needs to learn how to work with others, which means both you Senators got to go. Time for a new job, where we don't pay you.

Going to meet Congresswoman to be Amy McGrath this week. Let's go, got some funds and time.

[democratisphere]

11. I hope Kentuckians get rid of this fraud.

[PatSeg]

12. You know Rand

A person COULD call a country a "shithole" without it being racist, but when the comment comes out of the mouth of a chronic, prolific, and consistent racist, I think it is a fair assumption to call it racist.

Meanwhile, Rand Paul does not have a good track record when it comes to racism, so he would have been wise to just shut the hell up.

[UpInArms]

13. Now, we know what this piece of shit said

And if you stayed silent, if you made excuses, if you tried to fool yourself into believing this is appropriate presidential behavior, if you let it slide because this presidency might somehow line your pocketbook, then you will be remembered as complicit, as one who stood by and let America’s decency get dragged through the mud.

[Penn Voter]

14. If Trump came to a press conference in black face

these apologists would say Trump wasn't being racist. Just remember that David Duke and other white supremacists agree with Trump. The 2018 midterms have to show that the Trump supporters are in the minority.

[steve2470]

28. he has to appear in white robes or quote Hitler's antisemitism, otherwise he's not a racist

[Augiedog]

15. Maybe now we know why his neighbor kicked his ass

[dalton99a]

21. +1

[C_U_L8R]

16. If the namecalling isn't racist enough for you, Rand

then how about that racist immigration policy???

[Demit]

17. A $10,000 donation. It wasn't even Trump's money, it was the foundation's.

Which we all know came from other people. And Rand Paul didn't think too much of Trump at the time. He thought he was insincere and vulgar.
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/rand-paul-how-do-you-out-trump-irrational-n412451

[Farmer-Rick]

18. I've noticed here in TN that a lot of people who call themselves Libertarian are racist

There are plenty of RepubliCON racists too but seems almost all the Libertarians I've met around here are full fledged, would fly the Confederate swastika if they could get away without their neighbors knowing, hate filled racist. In my mind, if you are are for free flowing unregulated capitalism and greed, you wouldn't hate a population so much that you would stop them from buying your product and making you richer. But they would and they do.

[Doodley]

19. Poor little Tiny Hands, a victim of all those who call him a racist. So unfair!

[DinahMoeHum]

20. Shut yer fuckin' pie-hole, Rand, you D-bag hayseed.

[William Seger]

22. Rand Paul is a Libertarian, which is to say a Social Darwinist

Of course he agrees with Trump that people from poor countries are inferior, worthless people; otherwise they wouldn't be poor countries.

[dalton99a]

23. Yep. The same old "If you let me rob you, then you deserve it"

[paleotn]

24. His neighbor should have finished the job he started.

[Blue_Tires]

25. Hey Rand Paul Bros & Beckys -- Come in here and defend your boy...

[lunasun]

26. He probably doesn't think his daddy Ron Paul is racist either

[Freethinker65]

27. Not racist???? Explain the Norway comment.

[forgotmylogin]

29. Are we supposed to take his comments

At face value? Or are we supposed to look beyond his words “into his heart” per Kellyanne Conway?

Either way doesn’t come out well.

[0rganism]

30. so how about the "Norway comments" Rand?

these guys are trying a multipronged attack on reality
1 it didn't happen (raw denial)
2 if it did happen it wasn't racist (gaslighting)
3 if it was racist it didn't happen because Trump has great relationships with Haitians/Africans/whoever (zomg what even is this "technique"?)
4 Obama/Clinton/Bird/someDemocratSomewhere was racist too (whataboutism)
5 missiles hitting Hawaii (non sequiter distraction)

i often heard about reality being "overrated" and such, but i don't trust GOP assclowns to replace it with something better after they've finished pillaging and burning it down.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

31. "Paul brought up a medical trip (to Haiti) financed in part by Trump"

He most likely paid for it out of Trump Foundation funds, and we know what a scam that is -- take in donations from one side and pretend it's your money as it's disbursed, so you get all the credit.

[Sunlei]

32. perhaps the Pauls could help American citizens have cateract surgery too? some healthcare clinics?

leadfree water for a couple of the forgotten American 'neighborhoods'?? anything?

[tclambert]

33. Rand Paul: "The President may look like a duck, walk like a duck, and quack like a duck . . .

and wear the feathers of a duck, and have the DNA of a duck. That does not prove he is 100% duck. He might be part Norwegian."