Trump's racist tweets provide a life raft to Democrats, and a lesson for 2020
by Philip Klein
| July 15, 2019 11:26 AM
House Democrats spent last week in a bitter public war of words that deepened the fissures between leadership, traditional liberals, and the prominent young socialist wing of the party. But over the weekend, President Trump threw his opponents a life raft by uncorking a series of racist tweets that created an opportunity for Democrats to unify. This teaches us an important lesson to keep in mind as the 2020 election plays out.
The long-simmering conflict between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the quartet of young congresswomen (Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley) boiled over when Pelosi dismissed their influence as being confined to Twitter, and AOC complained that Pelosi was singling out women of color. The fight expanded as other party members started sniping at each other and got so bad that on Friday night, the official Twitter feed of the House Democrats went after AOC's chief of staff. This would have been a good moment for Trump to grab a bucket of popcorn, and enjoy the show. Instead, he decided to grab a hand grenade and toss it in for the heck of it, providing Democrats with a common enemy to rally around.
Now, when I made this point on Twitter, a lot of Trump fans scoffed at the idea that there was anything racist in Trump's tweets, so it's worth taking a moment to explain why they struck me, at least, as racist. And I say this as somebody who has been disgusted by many of the statements being made by the young congresswomen, having criticized Tlaib and Omar and AOC many, many, many, many times.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/trumps-racist-tweets-provide-a-life-raft-to-democrats-and-a-lesson-for-2020
