PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley won loud cheers at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday evening when he called Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump a “racist.” But O’Malley was stumped when Breitbart News asked him to name anything Trump had said about black people.
Breitbart News: Governor O’Malley, can I ask you to clarify something? So, um, your speech was very well received —
O’Malley: Thank you.
Breitbart News: You said that Donald Trump is a “bully” and a “racist.” Can you elaborate on that? What has he said about black people that people should be worried about?
O’Malley: What’s he said about?
Breitbart News: Black people. You said he was a “racist”?
O’Malley: Yeah, I said he was a racist about Mexican-Americans, I said he was a religious bigot, and, uh —
Handler: There’s a place for those requests. We’re gonna go.
O’Malley actually ad-libbed the “bully racist” line in his speech. His prepared remarks — as handed out to reporters — read: “It’s time to put Donald Trump in his place.” Onstage, however, O’Malley substituted “a bully racist” for “Donald Trump.” (See O’Malley’s speech, at 5:51, below.)
O’Malley made no mention of bigotry against Mexicans or other religions in his speech.
Before dropping out of the presidential primary race, O’Malley was booed by Black Lives Matter activists at a Netroots Nation conference for saying: “Every life matters. And that is why this issue is so important. Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter.” The latter two phrases are considered off-limits by the movement.
Later, on a radio show called “This Week in Blackness,” O’Malley apologized, saying he had made a “mistake” and that he had “meant no disrespect” to black people.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.