On the heels of widespread protests regarding the brutal detainment and death of George Floyd, somehow President Donald Trump is prioritizing attempts to discredit reports of racism. First, he called the protesters seeking an end to racism and police brutality “thugs.” Now he’s attempting to discredit NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, who went public about a noose found in his garage last month.
Although the FBI quickly washed its hands of a hate crime investigation regarding the noose, NASCAR officials released a photo of the hate symbol and NASCAR President Steve Phelps defended Wallace, who is the company’s only Black driver in the Cup Series. That apparently wasn’t enough to convince the president that Wallace’s report of racism was legitimate. Instead, the commander in chief wrote the incident off as a “HOAX” and attempted to connect it to NASCAR’s decision to ban the Confederate flag in a tweet Monday.
Monday, Jul 6, 2020 · 7:07:39 PM +00:00
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Lauren Floyd
Wallace responded to the president’s tweet Monday afternoon with a message for the next generation of racers. "Never let anybody tell you (you) can't do something! God put us all here for a reason," Wallace said. "Find that reason and be proud of it and work your tails off every day towards it! All the haters are doing is elevating your voice and platform to much greater heights."
Wallace ended his message by directly addressing Trump. "Love should come naturally as people are TAUGHT to hate," he said. "Even when it's HAtE from the POTUS.."
“Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!" Trump tweeted.
And just like that, he got his usual mix of coddling from apologists and criticism from people who know better, including NASCAR driver Tyler Reddick. “We don’t need an apology. We did what was right and we will do just fine without your support,” Reddick tweeted.
Former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill tweeted: "Seriously no one, particularly @BubbaWallace should apologize for investigating this. Oh, and when you capitalize “Flag” in the middle of a sentence real Americans think your referring to ours not the Confederate one. Smh."
CNN correspondent Dianne Gallagher pointed out a few facts the president ignored. “So, @BubbaWallace didn’t report the noose, never even saw the noose. NASCAR President Steve Phelps informed Bubba about it, hours after it was found— shortly before telling the media in a statement. This was the “garage pull” NASCAR said it found in (only) the 43 garage," Gallagher tweeted.
In a NASCAR staff report, the organization said “NASCAR officials asked each track to sweep through respective garages … So across those 29 tracks and 1,684 garage stalls, we found only 11 total that had a pull-down rope tied in a knot and only one noose — the one discovered on Sunday in Bubba Wallace’s garage,” Phelps said.
Wallace, who has been more vocal about racial injustice recently, called the noose left in his garage a “despicable act of racism and hatred” that “serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism … As my mother told me today, 'They are just trying to scare you,'” Wallace said in a statement he shared on Twitter. “This will not break me, I will not give in nor will I back down. I will continue to proudly stand for what I believe in."
He also said in a follow-up tweet that he was "relieved" when the FBI investigation revealed that "this wasn't what we feared it was … I think we'll gladly take a little embarrassment over what the alternatives could have been," Wallace said.
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