White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended President Donald Trump amid accusations that he is racist by claiming his time on television absolved him of such a label.
“I think that is an outrageous claim and frankly I think if the critics of the president were who he said he was why did NBC give him a show for a decade on TV,” Sanders said.
During remarks to reporters just now, @PressSec said NBC’s relationship with Trump & the fact he donated to Dems is evidence he isn’t racist.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 16, 2018
“Why did NBC give him a show for a decade on TV? Why did Chuck Schumer and all of his colleagues come and beg Donald Trump for money?” pic.twitter.com/ELsbA5YspK
Sanders spoke briefly with reporters on Tuesday as Trump has come under increased criticism following reports of him calling African counties “shithole” nations during a meeting about immigration reform last week.
A U.N. spokesperson for human rights condemned Trump’s language, calling them “shocking and shameful.”
“There is no other word you can use but ‘racist,’” Rupert Coleville said. “You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘s***holes,’ whose entire populations who are not white, are therefore not welcome.”
The president has denied using the term. As clamor continued to grow surrounding his comments—including some Republicans who have danced around whether “shithole” was the exact term he used—Trump said he was the “least racist person,” a reporter had ever interviewed.
Trump starred in the NBC show The Apprentice for 15 seasons. Some reports claim he was fired from the show following his comments about Mexican immigrants when he launched his presidential campaign. Trump has said he wasn’t fired but rather “cut ties with them.”
After Sanders comment, Twitter was abuzz about the supposed library of tapes Apprentice producer Mark Burnett has that allegedly show Trump using racial slurs.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders should be careful citing The Apprentice as proof Trump isn’t racist. Those unedited tapes are still out there. #RacistTrump https://t.co/Ta26q4skpL
— Julia (@jshbooks) January 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/Redneck_Dem/status/953281055309561857
Besides the recent “shithole” comments, Trump has had a history of using racially-tinged language. A Washington Post study, in the wake of Charlottesville, found that Trump called Black people racist on Twitter three times as much as he did white people.
