A white Republican lawmaker in Georgia said on Saturday that if Donald Trump was, in fact, caught on tape using the N-word in the past, he would be fine with it.
In an interview with CNN, GOP state Sen. Michael Williams said Trump should get a free pass since the racial slur might have taken place before he took office.
“Just because (Trump) might have done it years ago, not as our president, doesn’t mean we need to continue to berate him because he used it,” Williams told CNN.
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Georgia lawmaker: “I will always say using the n-word is wrong… and should never be accepted in our society. But just because [Trump] might have done it years ago, not as our president, doesn’t mean we need to continue to berate him because he used it” https://t.co/ATfPheAFu8 pic.twitter.com/3FrgX3AOce
— CNN (@CNN) August 18, 2018
The crux of Williams’ argument is that no leader should be held accountable for behavior that took place prior to taking office.
While he said he doesn’t condone using the word, he called it “bad precedent” to “hold somebody accountable for something he did years ago as our president today.”
The Georgia lawmaker said Trump has the ability to separate his personal beliefs from how he runs the country. Yeah, sure.
Republicans have jumped off the cliff for Trump
Georgia Rep. Michael Williams’ defense of a possible Trump N-word tape is just the latest demonstration of how far the Republican Party has jumped off the cliff in service to Donald Trump.
On Saturday, Virginia GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart echoed Williams and claimed a tape with Trump using a racial slur would be inconsequential.
Republicans have tied their own political fortunes so tightly to Trump that they are now proud to defend the indefensible time and time again. That’s true of local politicians, like Williams, and national leaders like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan.
After all, in order to support an immoral, compassionless gas bag like Donald Trump, you have to first abandon any moral compass you may have pretended to have in the past. That’s exactly what Republicans have done, and it will have major long-term political ramifications for them.
Still, in an era filled with Republicans spewing insanity to protect this president, Saturday’s comments by Georgia Rep. Michael Williams could take the cake.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
