Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVIII: I'm OK, You're Deplorable
And the Globe article is blocked...
A Donald Trump county campaign chair in Ohio has resigned and apologized after claiming racism didn’t exist before President Obama in an online interview published Thursday.
Trump’s Mahoning County campaign chair Kathy Miller made the comments to the Guardian in a taped interview outside of a county Republican picnic.
“I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected. We never had problems like this. You know, I’m in the real estate industry. There’s none. Now, with the people with the guns and shooting up neighborhoods and not being responsible citizens, that’s a big change and I think that’s the philosophy that Obama has perpetuated on America,” Miller said.
“If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault,” she added.
Miller apologized for the remarks in a statement released by the Trump campaign in Ohio Thursday.
“My personal comments were inappropriate, and I apologize. I am not a spokesperson for the campaign and was not speaking on its behalf,” she said, according to the statement. “I have resigned as the volunteer campaign chair in Mahoning County and as an elector to the Electoral College to avoid any unnecessary distractions.”
Miller was set to serve serve as an elector if Trump wins Ohio.
During the Guardian interview, Miller also said African Americans have “all the advantages” when it comes to education and said they only have themselves to blame if they haven’t achieved success in America.
She said African Americans aren’t finishing high school and are having children out of wedlock.
“I mean, when do they take responsibility for how they live? I think it’s due time and I think that’s good that Mr. Trump is pointing that out,” she said.
The comments were part of a video series produced by the Guardian to highlight “overlooked” areas of the country. Following the interview, Miller told the reporter he should “get off” the topic of racism.
“If people have jobs and go to work and do what they’re supposed to do, there’s is no racism,” she said.
Told by the reporter that African Americans might disagree with her, she replied “that’s because they’re not going to work.”
When asked whether she thought people might find her remarks offensive, she said, “I don’t care, it’s the truth.”
The comments were published just a day after Trump sought to court African-American voters in Ohio, amid persistent complaints of racial insensitivity. On Wednesday, the Republican candidate held an event at a predominantly black church in Cleveland Heights and told the attendees he “fully understand
that the African-American community has suffered from discrimination and many wrongs must be made right.”
Trump’s Ohio event came just days after he acknowledged that President Obama was indeed born in the United States — contrary to the conspiracy theories he helped stoke for the past five years questioning Obama’s birth origin. Trump’s leadership role in the discredited “birther’’ movement was considered by many to be a racially motivated attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the country’s first black president.
Polls have consistently shown Trump polling in the low single digits — and even as low as zero — with African-American voters.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment.
