Donald Trump just said “what people are thinking” when he called Haiti and African nations “shithole countries,” says Rep. Jim Renacci, who is hoping to challenge Sen. Sherrod Brown (R-OH) this November. In an interview with—who else—Fox News, Renacci joined a select group of Republican extremists who are actually defending Trump’s comments:
ANCHOR: President’s comments yesterday bother you, frustrated? He lamented about the immigration program that was in front of him, says, “why are we taking so many people from these “s-hole* countries”, what is your reaction to that?
RENACCI: Well look, I’ve said all along, the president many times says what people are thinking. I learned as a business guy you have to be careful what you say because people pick everything up, believe me, when I have a mic on I have got to watch what I say. That is a business guy going into a political career. It’s difficult, I know it’s difficult for the president, because many times you want to say what you are thinking, but in the end, I know a lot of times he is saying what people are thinking.
“I know it’s difficult for the president, because many times you want to say what you are thinking”—so Renacci's clear that yes, Trump said shithole and he meant it—“but in the end, I know a lot of times he is saying what people are thinking.” Racists. People who look at countries populated by people of color and think “shithole.” Kind of like how Trump called Rep. John Lewis’s Atlanta congressional district “in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested),” obviously a presumption about the district a black member of Congress would represent. It’s obvious because in fact, Lewis represents some of Atlanta’s wealthier neighborhoods as well as some of its poorer ones, while the city overall is growing and in a development boom.
Whatever the final word from the White House on what Trump said and what Trump meant, remember this: Trump’s congressional defenders believe he said and meant “shithole.” And remember that when you’re thinking about an Ohio Senate race between Sherrod Brown, one of the strongest Democrats out there, and this shithead Renacci.
Help take back the Senate! Can you give $3 to the Democratic nominee funds in the key Republican-held states of Arizona and Nevada?