Capehart is part of the Editorial staff of the Washington Post. He decided to respond to the farce in DC today by Donald Trump. Shortly before 7 PM Donald Trump: Birther of a national disgrace went live on the Post’s website.
Now just stop in case it did not yet get through, and look again at that title.
You should hear the echos of a famous silent film that glorified the Ku Klux Klan, that unfortunately the President at the time, Southerner (born in VA, raised in FL, even though elected from NJ), Thomas Woodrow Wilson, screened the White House, and described it as great history.
Yes, I am talking about “Birth of a Nation,” based on a novel titled The Klansman. And given how Trump’s “birtherism” is simply racism writ in different words, given his pandering to the so-called “Alt Right,” given his initial refusal to denounce David Duke and pretending he did not know who Duke was (despite back when considered himself a Democrat having denounced Duke), perhaps the association with that film is appropriate.
Capehart’s piece is relatively short. He begins with this paragraph
Five years after fomenting the racist birther lie that President Obama was not born in the United States and, therefore, illegally occupying the Oval Office, Donald Trump interrupted a hotel advertisement masquerading as a campaign event to utter empty words.
before moving on to take on the outright lies in the 30 seconds of what had been promoted as “a major announcement.”
And please note the accurate description of a hotel advertisement masquerading as a campaign event even before the also accurate depiction of the words spoken as empty.
Capehart addresses both of the lies — that Clinton was responsible for the birther controversy and that he Trump ended it — with links that document the falsity, before writing bluntly
But most galling was what Trump didn’t say after declaring, “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.” He did not apologize.
There is well-written section that describes all of the apologies necessary, and how Capehart reserves his own vitriol for “the conspiracy of silence” in which so many Republican leaders participate to this day that allowed the birther lie to fester and thus enable Trump to gain the nomination. He then reminds us that Trump turns down invitations to Black audiences and makes his remarks in front of all or almost all White audiences, then writes
The signal was pretty clear to African Americans: It ain’t about you. It’s about them. Them being white voters turned off by Trump’s overt racism.
That sets up Capehart’s final paragraph, which speaks powerfully and bluntly”
Trump has done and said many things that disqualify him as a potential president of the United States. His inability, daresay unwillingness, to ask forgiveness for stoking the racist birther lie says everything we need to know about Trump. That he is one national election away from sitting in the Oval Office because of that lie is a disgrace.
Good work, Mr. Capehart.