Civil rights titan Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) said in an interview published Tuesday that he sees “the scars and stains of racism” in remarks made by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) about President Obama.
Last week, Giuliani told a crowd in Manhattan that he believes Obama “doesn’t love America.” He later refused to back away from the comments, even defending them by saying they weren’t racist because the President’s mother was white.
In the interview published on Tuesday, USA Today asked the congressman whether he thought Giuliani’s comments were “driven by race.”
“It’s strange: Ever since he has been President, people have been trying to take something from him — that he’s not American, that he wasn’t born here,” Lewis responded.
“But we must keep in mind that the scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in American society,” he added. “We have a distance to go.”
Watch below, via USA Today. (The exchange about Giuliani starts at 4:47.)
h/t Mediaite
And the media always seems to be so puzzled as to why “people” feel the need to do that, don’t they? I wonder what could be the difference with this President?
I am thankful every day that this great American hero is my U.S. Representative. He continues to fight the good fight.
Thank-you, Congressman Lewis.
Rudy Giuliani is a very sad example of the distance we still have to walk.
Giuliani can try to weasel and squirm out of this mess he’s created for himself, but it takes people like Rep. Lewis to remind us all of just how disgustingly racist his thinly veiled attacks really are. People like Giuliani are never ones to take the high road so they just baselessly attack this President’s patriotism and love of country. That is the last desperate act of a scoundrel.
Absolutely true. And yet the media tacitly approves of it. I am sure they are all anxious to invite him to appear on their talk shows to give him a soapbox.