An Unhinged Bottom Feeder

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Barack and Michelle Obama have something that Donald Trump will never possess:  class.

One of my first acts of consciousness each morning is to check the news headlines on my phone.  Ths past Friday morning I found an oddball story in one minor news source that was so shocking I assumed it had to be fake.  The story said that Trump had stayed up late the previous night banging out tweets and reposting memes.   That part was easy to believe, but then it went on to say that a few minutes before midnight he had posted a video showing Barack an Michelle Obama's faces on the bodies of apes.

No, that couldn't have happened, I surmised.  Not even Donald John Trump was that racist and stupid, and even if he was, surely someone on his staff is in charge of monitoring his social media postings and would not have let that remain up.

The story didn't appear in the other news sources whose headlines I read in the mornings, and National Public Radio (NPR), one of my primary news sources, wasn't covering it on their morning news programming.  But when I checked in with NPR around noon, they were covering it and noted that equating Blacks with apes was "a long-standing racist trope from the Jim Crow era used to dehumanize Black people."

As the uproar began to pick up steam, the White House responded by sending Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt out before the cameras to mock the press for trying to turn it into a big deal.  When that didn't work, Trump began spitting out statements and excuses:  He hadn't posted it.  A staffer had posted it but hadn't reviewed the entire thing and seen the part featuring the Obamas.  No, the staffer had not been fired.  Okay, he (Trump) had posted it, but he had not viewed the entire thing either.  No, he (Trump) had done nothing wrong,  And, no, he (Trump) would not apologize.  Case closed.  The meme was up for 12 hours before finally being pulled down.

The reviews poured in:  US Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black GOP member of the Senate, called it "the most racist thing to come out of the White House."  GOP Rep. Mike Lawler of New York called the post "wrong and incredibly offensive" and said it should be withdrawn and an apology offered.  Republican Senator Roger Wicher of Mississippi called the video "unacceptable" and requested that Trump apologize.  Senator Ricketts of Nebraska, another Republican, also expressed outrage.

Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, referred to the posting as "appalling."  Rep. Mike Turner, a Republican from Ohio, called it "heartbreaking and unacceptable," and said Trump should apologize.   GOP Senator John Curtis of Utah called it "blatantly racist and inexcusable" and said it should have never been posted or left up for so long.

And those were just the Republicans reacting.  The Democrats tended to be even more offended.  

Democrat Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, called the posting "racist," "vile," and "abhorrent."  Democratic Representative Maxine Waters said the meme was "brazen" and "racist," but said she wasn't surprised because "that is who Trump is."

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas said:

"Most of us already know who Donald Trump is.  We already know there are no bounds to how low he's willing to go.  We know he has no moral compass.  We know that his behavior is a disgrace.  So while his behavior is not shocking, it is certainly disgiusting and disturbing."

But it was Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader of the US House, whose summary was the most poetic.  Jeffries said in a video on Instagram:

"F*** Donald Trump and his vile, racist, and ignorant behavior.  This guy is an unhinged bottom feeder."

Well, f*** yeah, he is!

The racist meme stayed up for twelve hours, and Trump, who claimed no responsibility because he had not viewed it in its one-to-two-minute entirety before posting, declined to apologize to the Obamas over the egregious insult.  Trump, who bullied his way into national political prominence with claims that Barack Obama had been born in Kenya, does not do apologies.

Here's hoping Barack and Michelle Obama, armed with their Harvard law degrees, sue the shirt off of Donald Trump's back - and take his golf cart, too!  $50 billion sounds about right!