Bundy Tries To Clarify His Slavery Remarks: ‘I’m Not Racist’

Cliven Bundy, right, and Clance Cox, left, stand at the Bundy ranch near Bunkerville Nev. Saturday, April 5, 2014. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management started taking cattle on Saturday from rancher Bundy, who it says ... Cliven Bundy, right, and Clance Cox, left, stand at the Bundy ranch near Bunkerville Nev. Saturday, April 5, 2014. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management started taking cattle on Saturday from rancher Bundy, who it says has been trespassing on U.S. land without required grazing permits for over 25 years. Bundy doesn't recognize federal authority on land he insists belongs to Nevada. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, John Locher) MORE LESS
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Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy made the rounds on conservative radio shows Thursday, trying to explain his musings about whether blacks had been “better off as slaves.”

In an interview with conspiracy extraordinaire Alex Jones, Bundy said he would appreciate it if The New York Times retracted their story.

“I would appreciate that. I think they should do that,” Bundy said. “They’re making it a racist-type thing. I’m not racist.”

Bundy also went on The Peter Schiff Show to explain his remarks, as Mediaite reported. Noting that the word on the Internet was that Cliven Bundy is a racist, the host asked if Bundy wanted to clarify his remarks. Here’s what Bundy said:

I’m wondering if they’re better off under a government subsidy and their young women are having the abortions and their young men are in jail and their older women and children are sitting out on the cement porch without nothing to do.

I’m wondering: Are they happier now under this government subsidy system than they were when they were when they were slaves and they was able to their family structure together and the chickens and the garden and the people have something to do?

So in my mind, are they better off being slaves in that sense or better off being slaves to the United States government in the sense of the subsidy? I’m wondering. The statement was right. I am wondering.

Here’s the original video, courtesy of Media Matters, of Bundy making the comments.

Notable Replies

  1. He’s learned the ways of the GOP, Republicans, &
    T-Baggers very well.
    You can go on TV, Radio, & print media and say the
    most racist, bigoted things one could conjure up.
    Feed your audience all the red meat they crave.
    Then you go out and claim you’re not what you clearly
    are. I guess they really do live in the Dark Ages they
    long to take us all back to.
    I can think of no other explanation as to why they
    deny it, we have the TAPE!

  2. His own subsidy–his legal one and the one he just took–seems OK tho.

  3. What’s fascinating and sad is that this guy seems to have no idea that his POV is racist. Got to wonder how prevalent this is among racist?

  4. Conservative rants that they are not racists comes off like the Groupie chorus in the old Frank Zappa song: “We’re not groupies. We just want a guy, from a group, with a dick that’s a monster. But we’re not groupies.”

  5. Keep on ‘splainin’, Cleven, until EVERYONE understands what you really mean.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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