Hirono: Trump Shouldn’t Get ‘Benefit of the Doubt’ on ‘Nationalist’ – ‘It’s Racism’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) argued President Trump shouldn’t get “the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t understand what he means when he refers to nationalists or any of these other terms. These are not just dog whistles, but it’s bullhorns.”

Hirono responded to President Trump’s claim that there are people from the Middle East in the migrant caravan by saying, “Well, note that he had no proof of it. And it’s just yet another example of how he stokes fear and loathing into the electorate. He knows he’s speaking to his base.”

She continued, “And the words he uses, he says he doesn’t really — he makes up his own definitions. We should stop giving him the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t understand what he means when he refers to nationalists or any of these other terms. These are not just dog whistles, but it’s bullhorns. It’s racism. It’s basically, for many people, it’s anti-Semitic. It’s white supremacy. He knows very well what he’s talking about, even if he professes otherwise.”

(h/t Mediaite)

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