Lincoln Project senior adviser Tara Setmayer faced backlash online after being accused of “racism” over her remarks describing Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina as a “racial pacifier” and “racial security blanket” of the GOP.
Appearing on MSNBC’s The Saturday Show with Jonathan Capehart this past week, “Never-Trumper” Tara Setmayer, a senior adviser to The Lincoln Project since 2020, discussed Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) recent 2024 presidential campaign launch.
“Listen, Tim Scott, bless his heart, is trying to make a name for himself now, taking advantage of the fact that Republicans every election cycle need a racial pacifier,” she said.
“He’s their racial security blanket in the race,” she added.
Setmayer also accused the GOP of lacking in diversity.
“Given all of the context of what’s gone on racially with Trump and Republicans over the last few years, and even after the 2012 election cycle when Republicans did that autopsy and found that they had got to diversify the tent if they want to survive as a party — well, instead, they went in the complete opposite direction,” she said.
The former CNN political commentator pointed to “good old Senator Tim Scott, the lone black Republican in the Senate,” calling him “the one constant” among Republicans.
“Listen I respect Senator Scott’s biography, his life story is great, it’s the American dream and good for him,” she claimed.
“What I don’t respect is the fact that with that American story, with his experience, with even as a conservative — I’m still a conservative, just not a Republican — that he would still — still — support Donald Trump,” she added.
Criticizing Scott’s support for the former president, Setmayer explained that she had “no respect” for those with such a position.
“Last summer, he went out of his way during the January 6 hearings when he was asked about January 6 — remember he voted to acquit Donald Trump’s impeachment after January 6 — he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I haven’t been watching the hearings and if Trump’s the nominee, of course, we’ll support him,’” she said.
“That I have no respect for, none whatsoever,” she added. “I have no respect for someone that cannot take a firm position on where he stands on our democracy, on Donald Trump’s existential threat to it, and the fact that the Republican Party has been abysmal on several issues that are important to our country today.”
Setmayer also deemed Scott a hopeless “big snooze.”
“I mean, the 1990s called and they want their campaign video back,” she said. “There’s nothing extraordinary about what Tim Scott is doing. I mean he’s a big snooze and he has no chance, none whatsoever, zip-zero.”
In response, many took to social media to slam Setmayer’s “racist” comments.
“What an obnoxious twit,” wrote one Twitter user. “Always a race baiter.”
“Tim Scott has more knowledge, experience, grace, and dignity than you can ever hope to have,” the user added. “Pathetic.”
“Calling Tim Scott a ‘racial security blanket’ and ‘racial pacifier’, you not only created a phrase to replace the term ‘token black’, but you also revealed who YOU are in the Lincoln Project,” wrote another.
“Just another organization designed to divide America,” they added.
“Your statement was immature at best,” another user wrote. “Get over yourself and allow the man to run on his merits and accolades.”
“Perhaps you can look past someone’s skin tone for a moment,” the user added.
“Why do you feel the need to be so divisive?” asked one Twitter user. “Tim Scott is Republican. So what?! If you don’t agree with his views just say that.”
“By making it about him being a black Republican shows that you’re the one who’s focused on race,” the user added. “Do you have a problem with all black Republicans? Why?”
“You make comments like this and then accuse others of hate? What is wrong with you?” a Twitter user asked.
“Yes, Setmayer, YOU ARE the racist and YOUR language is inflammatory,” another wrote.
The matter comes as minority Republicans continue to face racist rhetoric from both the left and left-leaning “conservatives.”
In November, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor and “anti-racist” consultant Sundiata Cha-Jua called then-candidate for U.S. Senate Herschel Walker (R-GA) “subliterate,” and used the racial slur “coonish” to describe him in an op-ed complaining about black republicans, who he smears as “MAGA Black White supremacists,” arguing that black conservatives are only capable of repeating “‘massa’ Trump’s talking points.”
This is not the first time Setmayer has been accused of racism.
In 2018, she called hip-hop superstar and fashion mogul Kanye West (currently “Ye”) an “attention whore like the president. He’s … the token negro of the Trump administration.”
In response to criticism over her comments, Setmayer told former TV host Bill Spadea not to “whitesplain” racism to her, a term in itself seen as highly racist.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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