Trump Campaign Manager Responds to “White Power” Shouts at Rally: “People Like Our Message”
By now it’s very clear that Donald Trump is consciously tailoring his campaign rhetoric to appeal to the disconcertingly large number of far right xenophobic nationalists among the Republican voting base.
It’s telling that when asked on CNN about shouts of “white power” at Trump’s rally in Alabama, his campaign manager couldn’t muster up a single word of disapproval for the white supremacists; he just ignored the whole issue and praised Trump’s supporters as people who “want to be proud of being Americans.”
White Americans, he didn’t add. Because he didn’t have to; it’s obvious.
Self-styled “white nationalists” from all over the far-right spectrum have been drawn to Trump’s hardline immigration stance this election cycle. CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, about reports that a man yelled “white power” multiple times Friday at the rally in Mobile, Alabama:
“I don’t know about the individual you’re talking about in Alabama,” Lewandowski said on “State of the Union.” “I know there were 30-plus thousand people in that stadium. They were very receptive to the message of ‘making America great again’ because they want to be proud to be Americans again.”