Wajahat Ali mocked the Republican Party for lacking diversity on Friday evening during a segment of “Cuomo Prime Time” on CNN, saying that the party of President Donald Trump represented “every shade of white under the sun.”
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Ali was responding to the news that Republican Texas Rep. Will Hurd, currently the Republican Party’s only black House member, would not seek reelection in 2020. (RELATED: NYT Contributor Calls Out Dan Crenshaw For Not Sponsoring 9/11 Victim Fund — There’s Only One Problem)
“President Trump is the President of all Americans,” Ali claimed. “I think the Republican Party is the most diverse party on Earth. When I look at the Republican Party I see every shade of white under the sun, I see white men, old white men, young white men, white men with facial hair, some white men with fades. I even see some white women. What I don’t see are people of color. Why? Because Donald Trump is a racist. He’s a racist president and he’s promoting a white nationalist ideology.”
Ali went on to cite the president’s tweets attacking Democratic Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings as further proof that Trump was “racist.”
Anchor Chris Cuomo turned then to his other guest, national spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality Niger Innis, pressing him to comment on Trump’s “penchant for division.”
“I turn to you, basically, a unicorn in your party right now. Why are you not offended by what you have to see as this president’s penchant for division?” Cuomo asked.
Innis wasn’t quite convinced, however, and argued that the president had been condemning the living conditions in Baltimore rather than the people. “Am I offended by Donald Trump calling out a district that has been controlled by one-party rule for over 50 years and where blacks large — a large number of blacks are in misery?” Innis asked. “He didn’t call blacks subhuman. He said the conditions are.”
