Democrats have a fever, and the only cure is more cowbell. It’s been over eight years since Donald Trump burst onto the political scene, and you’d think the press would come up with some new material over that span. They haven’t, though. Instead, they are playing the hits, and accusing the former president of being “xenophobic” and “racist” is their go-to.
CNN host Amara Walker did just that on Monday after Scott Jennings attempted to counter a Democrat commentator. At issue was a clip of Trump joking about creating a “migrant fighting league” to compete with UFC.
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Here’s what the exchange looked like (credit to Newsbusters for the transcript), with Walker jumping in mere seconds after Jennings started making his point.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Two-thirds of the American people support Donald Trump’s policy prescriptions for immigration right now, including a majority of Hispanics in the United States.
WALKER: Well, what about his comments? I mean, do you see them as racist and xenophobic comments? I mean, he’s painting migrants as, you know, being vile — they have violent tendencies, right, and, of course, dehumanizing them to ––
JENNINGS: Oh is he? Oh is he?
WALKER: — you know, being entertainment for the rest of us.
Now. Let’s take a look at what Trump said. Does the following match Walker’s description?
TRUMP: I said Dana, I have an idea. Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters (laughter), and then you have your regular league of fighters, and then you have the champion of your league, these are the greatest fighters in the world, fight the champion of the migrants. I think the migrant guy might win, that’s how tough they are. He didn’t like that idea too much, but actually, it’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had.
So a few things to note here. One, he’s clearly joking, which is something Dana White pointed out when questioned by a reporter later. Two, how is it “racist and xenophobic” to call migrants “tough?” No matter how you read into that, that’s not “dehumanizing” them, given the joke was about them fighting Americans in the UFC. Is the suggestion that all MMA fighters are being dehumanized?
To be honest, that’s too much analysis for such a stupid bit of commentary, though. It didn’t matter what Trump said. Any joke he told involving illegal immigrants would be painted as “vile” and “racist.”
Jennings didn’t leave it there, though. He then delivered a dose of reality to Walker and her Democrat guest.
JENNINGS: Is he painting them as being violent? I mean, would Laken Riley think they were violent? Would Rachel Morin think they were violent? Would Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas think they were violent? How about the girl that was raped in broad daylight in New York City? How about the girl that was kidnapped in Missouri?
Yes, there are violent people in the country. And yes, Donald Trump uses colorful language. But the bottom line is immigration is killing Joe Biden’s campaign right now. This is why he has a low approval rating. This is why Donald Trump is honing in on this. And people are responding to it and people are fed up with it.
And if you want to call two-thirds of the country racist or xenophobic because they’re in a mood right now that they want this fixed, yes, agree. By all means, go on. It’s not going to work.
The idea that it’s “xenophobic” to say any illegal immigrants are violent is laughable. We have a near-unquantifiable number of examples at this point showing that when you let millions of people into the country who are largely (and sometimes completely) unvetted, you will end up with violent criminals among them. There’s no way around it.
Further, as Jennings says, the vast majority of Americans support Trump’s immigration policies, including his idea of upping deportations. Are they xenophobic and racist, too? On the contrary, maybe, just maybe, there is a real problem that exists outside CNN’s bubble. Perhaps Walker should look into that instead of getting the vapors over a joke.
