Not to be outdone by Hillary Clinton and the press, members of the Congressional Black Caucus held a press conference on Friday denouncing Donald Trump’s short remarks about President Obama. That is, the Republican nominee’s promise to finally put to rest the “birtherism” controversy, which has cast doubt on whether or not the Hawaiian-born POTUS was actually born in or near the United States. Trump has loudly championed this conspiracy for some time, so when he tried to pin it on his Democratic rival, Black Caucus remembers responded in kind.
Representative G.K. Butterfield (D-North Carolina), chairman of the CBC, didn’t mince words when he began, saying “this is a disgusting day”:
“By any definition, Donald Trump is a disgusting fraud. He started this silliness years ago by saying that President Obama is not an American citizen. He had no proof of it, so he started this disgusting behavior seven or eight years ago questioning the president’s citizenship. He would not have done that to Mitt Romney. He would not have done that to a John McCain or any other white who was running for president of the United States. But he has leveled this criticism against President Obama.”
Other caucus members, like Representative Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina), described Trump’s press conference-cum-infomercial as “in-your-face kinds of efforts” exhibited by “one man who is misusing the media in order to heap indignities upon the President of the United States.” That is to say, instead focusing on his presidential campaign (or lack thereof), Trump’s efforts at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. were merely a ploy to embarrass Obama and Clinton.
New York Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks agreed with Butterfield, Clyburn, and his CBC fellows. He was especially critical of Trump’s “promoting his hotel” instead of “[making] a statement about his position in regards to the birther incidents” as originally promised. However, unlike his colleagues, Meeks — whose remarks opened the short press conference — concluded with a reevaluation of birtherism as “an American issue.”
Not just one pertinent to members of a particular race or minority group, but to everyone living in the United States. Nowhere was this more evident, Meeks argued, than in the obvious distinctions between the Trump and Clinton campaigns’ most prominent taglines — “Make America Great Again” and “Stronger Together,” respectively.
“What makes the United States of America the greatest country is that we accept and bring everybody together. That’s the example that we want to show. We want to show that you can be of different ethnic backgrounds, you can be of different religions, you can come from different parts of the world, and then we can come together in a democratic society and live a better life. And not demonize individuals as Donald Trump is.”
Check out Meeks’ welcoming, non-disgusting conclusion to the CBC press conference below.
