MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace asked Maggie Haberman point blank if she thought that Trump is a racist, and she didn’t answer.
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Maggie Haberman responded to being asked if she thought that Trump was a racist by answering:
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I think he says and does racist things over a very long period of time. I don’t know how else you would define it. Somebody incorporating racial paranoia into his public persona since the 1980s, the Central Park Five case, teenagers were charged inside that case, and they were all teenagers of color, and he called for bringing back the death penalty and he still won’t apologize even though — doing that.
Even though there is proof now that their confessions were coerced by officials. So you go from there through the White House. You know, he repeatedly says racist things and then says he was taken out of context. But at a certain point, I am not sure how much benefit of the doubt people are supposed to give him.
Haberman’s answer was access journalism at its worst. She would still be on the gossip beat if it wasn’t for Donald Trump. The former president is her meal ticket.
If she did not want to come out and say that Trump is a racist for journalistic reasons, she could have said that she thinks that the stories in the book speak for themselves.
Instead, she avoided putting the words Donald Trump and racist together like it was a hot stove.
Haberman’s answer is why people are frustrated with and distrustful of corporate media. She is supposed to be speaking truth to power and working for the American people, but she put her self-interest first, just like she did by withholding information from the public for her book and refusing to call Trump a racist.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
