During an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said unequivocally that there was “no question” Donald Trump is racist, when asked about the president’s rhetoric by Anderson Cooper. This seems pretty straightforward considering that Donald Trump is a huge racist.
Nevertheless, in response to Ocasio-Cortez’ comment, the White House has officially declared that AOC is suffering from “sheer ignorance” when it comes to identifying the president’s extremely obvious bigotry.
Gidley’s response is the sort of boilerplate text the Trump administration has repeatedly used when faced with the extremely credible allegations of racism: Unemployment rates! Criminal justice reform! None of this, of course, actually excuses away the president’s painfully obvious personal racism—which, as Ocasio-Cortez rightly notes, has been on full display throughout his presidency, from refusing to condemn literal murderous Nazis to enacting patently bigoted policies.
But hey, why confront a legacy of racism when you can just call the Latinx woman a stupid liar instead, right?