Michael Steele: Rick Perry Should Have ‘Just Remove[d] The Damn Thing’

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Former RNC Chair Michael Steele criticized Rick Perry’s handling of a family hunting site known to locals by an inflammatory racial slur.

Steele, one of the most prominent African-Americans in the GOP, told TIME on Monday that, while he wasn’t impugning Perrys motives, the Texas governor didn’t do enough to get rid of a rock labeled “Niggerhead,” as the area was popularly known.

“It’s very troubling on some many levels, for so many reasons,” Steele said. “So I’m going to lease lease a property, and on that property is a rock that has a hateful word on it that everyone knows to be racist in some form. What do you do? Do you paint over the rock? Or do you just remove the damn thing altogether? So, I’m sorry-my attitude is just remove the rock. That is the ultimate statement for me. Just get rid of the rock. Unless the thing is a damn boulder.”

Steele also defended Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who has faced a pillory of criticism from typically friendly conservative commentators after criticizing Perry’s handling of the issue.

“I think Herman Cain was right. It does lead one to feel that there was a level of insensitivity about how this would be perceived by the larger community,” he said. “I’m not just talking about black folks, I’m talking about all folks. You would think that even in the 1980s that there would still be some sense of, ‘Do we really want this on our property? Even though we’re leasing it, still, do you really want that there? And just painting over it?”

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