Earlier this week, Trump posted some racist tweets. He does this every week, but this time they were targeted at four members of Congress: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar.
All four are people of color. They’re also all American. Trump told them to go back to their countries to fix the corrupt governments there, neglecting to realize that they’re already working to fix that very corrupt government and implicitly self-owning himself in the process.
How folks are responding to the tweets acts as a sort of litmus test, revealing other (non-shocking) revelations of racism from countless politicians and others alike. The latest victim is one of Trump’s Republican critics, Mitt Romney.
The Utah senator was confronted by Alison King, a reporter for NBC Boston. In a tweet, King writes that Romney’s response to a question on the tweets was, “I certainly feel a number of these new members of Congress have views that are not consistent with my experience and not consistent with building a strong America.” That’s hollow Republican hand-waving jargon that suggests that Romney thinks that Trump has a point.
When explicitly asked if Trump is a racist, Romney refuses to answer and books it. Watch:
on whether Trump tweet is racist. pic.twitter.com/b0A8E2QChh
— Alison King NBC10 Boston (@AlisonNBCBoston) July 15, 2019
The video is … not a good look. And despite Romney’s critical takes on Trump, it’s not a surprise, given the Senator’s voting record. Naturally, responses to the video are filled with references to Romney being utterly spineless and caving to Republican party lines. Here are a few choice selections:
Mitt – Show some spine and independent thinking … I am sure that you will have an opportunity to react and stand up to trump – it won’t be long before he includes Mormons in his list of non Americans
— Kathy Hubert (@kathytexhubert) July 15, 2019
Interesting. Never seen a spine removal in realtime before. Thanks Alison!
— His Dudeness (@ZJudkins) July 15, 2019
I don’t know how you were able to interview him standing up since he has no spine.
— James Smith (@jymbo916) July 15, 2019
Jonathan M. Katz, meanwhile, asks the real question:
Why do we need the whitest man in history to comment on whether something was racist?
— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) July 15, 2019
This is not the first time Romney has shown his spinelessness. It won’t be his last.