The Democratic National Committee chastised GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush for saying he didn’t think the Washington Redskins football team name was offensive.
In a statement released Wednesday, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (R-FL) called the team’s name a “racial slur” and said Bush’s comments were “extremely insulting to Native American people.”
“The name is a racial slur that perpetuates negative stereotypes of Native American people, and reduces proud cultures to an insulting caricature,” Wasserman Schultz wrote.
In an interview set to air on SiriusXM’s “The Arena” on Friday, Bush said he doesn’t think the team should have to change its name.
“It’s a sport for crying out loud,” the former Florida governor said. “It’s a football team. Washington has a huge fan base. … I’m missing something here I guess.”
Wasserman Schultz painted Bush’s comments as part of a pattern of “shocking disregard for America’s diverse society.” As examples, she highlighted Bush’s suggestion that he would attract black voters with an uplifting message instead of “free stuff,” and his statement that the US “should not have a multicultural society.”
“So much for the Republican Party’s plan to appeal to minorities,” Wasserman Schultz wrote.
