Subject: DNC Chair: It’s Not Just Trump on Discrimination and Prejudice
From: DNC Press <[email-masked]>
To: DNC Press <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Feb 2016 20:07:02 +0000

<http://factivists.democrats.org/dnc-chair-its-not-just-trump-on-discrimination-and-prejudice/>

The Republican Party is in full-blown panic mode now that their party’s frontrunner refused to disavow former Republican gubernatorial candidate and Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. Sadly for them, establishment Republicans only can look to themselves for the rise of this vitriolic rhetoric and discriminatory proposals. We saw it when Rep. Steve Scalise was vaulted to the top tier of the House Republican leadership; even after it was known he once addressed a white supremacist convention. Scalise even once called himself “David Duke without the baggage.” This rise continued when party leaders refused to stand up to Jeb Bush for slurring the children of immigrants as “anchor babies” and when their 2012 nominee espoused “self-deportation.”

As the Washington Post’s Robert Kagan wrote today<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-the-gops-frankenstein-monster-now-hes-strong-enough-to-destroy-the-party/2016/02/25/3e443f28-dbc1-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html?postshare=7601456669864945&tid=ss_tw>:

Who began the attack on immigrants — legal and illegal — long before Trump arrived on the scene and made it his premier issue? Who frightened Mitt Romney into selling his soul in 2012, talking of “self-deportation” to get himself right with the party’s anti-immigrant forces? Who opposed any plausible means of dealing with the genuine problem of illegal immigration, forcing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to cower, abandon his principles — and his own immigration legislation — lest he be driven from the presidential race before it had even begun? It was not Trump. It was not even party yahoos. It was Republican Party pundits and intellectuals, trying to harness populist passions and perhaps deal a blow to any legislation for which President Obama might possibly claim even partial credit.

What did Trump do but pick up where they left off, tapping the well-primed gusher of popular anger, xenophobia and, yes, bigotry that the party had already unleashed?

And remember, both Rubio and Cruz raised their hands when asked if they would support the eventual Republican nominee. And it makes sense – neither Cruz nor Rubio themselves are strangers to piling on and repeating this same type of rhetoric:

·         Rubio compared Muslims to ‘members of the Nazi party’ and said that the country should consider closing down Mosques<http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/11/20/3724509/rubio-trump-shut-down-mosques/> and cafes where Muslim Americans gather. And yet, Rubio still doesn’t see discrimination against Muslims in the U.S.

·         Rubio campaigned this weekend with endorsement of George Allen, whose reelection bid failed after he used a racial slur at a campaign rally

·         Ted Cruz said he “understands” Trump’s Muslim ban

·         Ted Cruz’s friend and Super PAC director David Barton has “accidentally” addressed Neo-Nazi rallies – TWICE<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/26/texas-textbook-massacre-a_n_695788.html>

·         Cruz said that “We need a hundred more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate” – a Senator who opposed every Civil Rights measure

·         Cruz also compared<http://time.com/3754151/ted-cruz-spanish-campaign/?xid=tcoshare> Spanish to a “language ghetto”

“If the country has learned anything this past year, it’s that the Republican leadership is dragging the country backwards by associating with and condoning discrimination and prejudice. After years of coddling candidates that espouse such beliefs, Republicans cannot suddenly be shocked by the outrageous and offense rhetoric spewed by their frontrunner. These views have no place in the White House.” – DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

View this post on our Factivists site here<http://factivists.democrats.org/dnc-chair-its-not-just-trump-on-discrimination-and-prejudice/>.

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