A community liaison is someone who serves as a bridge between an organization and the people they serve. Their tasks are varied depending on where they work and there really isn’t any formal training that would make someone perfect for the job, just a general disposition to liking and wanting to help people. But as we’ve come to expect recently, people appointed to positions within the Trump administration don’t meet the basic requirements for their jobs and are wholly unqualified.
So it’s not at all shocking then to learn that the head of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security actually loathes the community. Well, certain segments of it, anyway.
The head of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security has said in the past that the black community is responsible for turning cities into "slums" and argued that Islam's only contribution to society was "oil and dead bodies," a CNN KFile review of his time as a radio host reveals.
Rev. Jamie Johnson was appointed in April by then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly to lead the Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships at the department.
In radio appearances from 2008 to as recently as 2016, Johnson was critical of the black community and painted Islam as a violent, illegitimate religion.
This department was established in the agency after Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita in 2006. Its overall purpose is to engage faith-based and community organizations in disaster and emergency preparedness and response. To boil it down to basics, it’s essentially about organizing, coordinating, and helping people aid needy people; making sure the right people are talking to each other and working together for the benefit of folks impacted by disasters. Literally, the most basic thing you need to do in a job like this is to like people. Or, at least not have complete disdain for them. But nope—Johnson can’t even do that.
And he was given the task of working with these communities by John Kelly. With everything we know about Kelly (or hell, even what he’s shown us in the last few weeks), let’s go ahead and revisit this big fat lie people have been telling about him being a moral compass. He’s a liar and a racist and, apparently, so are his friends.
Johnson is now saying he’s sorry about the things he’s said.
"I regret the manner in which those thoughts were expressed in the past, but can say unequivocally that they do not represent my views personally or professionally." But here are his own views, in all their glory, for us to see:
In 2011, Johnson said, "Jews do not want to cut our heads off, Muslims want to cut our heads off. Jews who believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are our friends, they will always be our friends, and the best supporter of the Jewish believer is the Christian who understands that Jesus was a Jew." [...]
In 2008, during a discussion on "The Right Balance" on Accent Radio Network, Johnson said he believed black people were anti-Semitic out of jealousy of the success of Jewish people.[...]
"And [Jewish people] have done exceptionally well for themselves. For only representing about 1.4% of America's population, they make up 12% of America's millionaires. Why? Because they work.
"And it's an indictment of America's black community that has turned America's major cities into slums because of laziness, drug use and sexual promiscuity."
If these aren’t Johnson’s views, whose are they, exactly? He said it and we should believe it. There’s no need to defend this garbage. It’s pretty clear: he hates blacks and Muslims. He’s okay with Jews because they are rich. Sound familiar? This is pretty much Donald Trump talking.
Still, the administration is taking his side and standing by their man.
Tyler Houlton, acting press secretary at DHS, told CNN, "The administration does not support these statements made by Rev. Johnson, some of which were said nearly a decade ago, and for which he has apologized. We believe Rev. Johnson has proven himself as a valuable supporter and proponent of the interfaith community's recovery efforts, particularly during Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and most recently bringing counseling and support following the tragic shooting at the church in Sutherland Springs, Texas."
Yeah, right. And if you believe that you probably believe all the other outrageous and ridiculous lies this administration has been telling since Day One. Let’s be clear: racists have a good friend in Donald Trump. And he likes them so much that he not only defends them when they march with torches and kill people, but he also employs them in the White House and hires them for his cabinet. And he’s also happy to appoint them to every agency in government. Someone once said, “Be careful of the company you keep.” Make no mistake, Trump keeps company with racists—and he loves it that way.
