‘Blatant Racism!’ MSNBC Hosts Slam Trump Over ‘RIGGERS!’ Attack — Code For ‘N-Word’ — And Threats Amid Violent Incidents
MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton and others slammed ex-President Donald Trump over his “racist” and “violent” language — including the use of a term many see as a coded stand-in for the n-word — amid recent violent episodes involving Trump fans.
Trump responded to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s new indictment on 13 election crimes counts by lashing out on social media against “RIGGERS!” — part of a relentless campaign of attacks on the legal jeopardy he faces.
That campaign continues against a backdrop that includes one Trump supporter being gunned down by FBI agents after he threatened President Joe Biden and another being arrested for threatening Judge Tanya Chutkan.
On Thursday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Rev. Sharpton and fellow MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Jonathan Lemire connected Trump’s “blatant racism” with an environment that encourages “blatant violence”:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: They are, Donald Trump and some extreme supporters are you know, they are they’re promoting this violence because their words are violent. And I again, I could I could list a hundred things that Trump and his supporters have said and have done where they promote, you know, fascist-style violence against government officials. I mean, my God, just look, he’s not a Trump supporter, but he’s learning to play Trump’s game. Ron DeSantis, when asked about federal employees, he said on the first day he’s going to slit their throats. This is the rhetoric that has taken over in the Republican Party and we see the consequences of it.
REV. AL SHARPTON: And the Republican Party leadership not coming out, denouncing it. And none of the candidates or the top tier candidates are really denouncing the violence or the rhetoric, as you point out, slit throat all the way to Donald Trump saying, “I’m going to come after you” in the midst of people being arrested and one man shot dead because he was had a weapon and FBI agents. And the racial language. I mean, this woman to call a federal office on call a judge’s chambers, talking about to a slave? Using a word that rhymes with the N-word. Donald Trump himself, their leader, using the term “RIGGERS”, which clearly rhymes with the N-word.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Exactly. Come on!
REV. AL SHARPTON: I mean, this is not exactly ten years ago. 30 years ago, we marched against him on the Central Park Five. Oh, I’m talking about he– within the last 24 hours, use the term “riggers.” Is this the kind of party the Republicans want to show the country that they are? There’s no one to independent to running away from them. To identify with blatant racism and blatant violence is not the party that we need. And I’ve never been a Republican, never leaned their way. But we need a two-party system. But we don’t need one good practice itself in bigotry.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Yeah, and Trump has used, of course, that racist and inflammatory language for so long and only leaning into it further as he’s dealing with whether it’s this judge who is African-American or Alvin Bragg of Manhattan, a Black man, this is something that he is putting central to his defense and his supporters are following their lead.
Watch above via MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
