It has been a while since we have heard from Trump surrogate and craven opportunist Katrina Pierson. If you do not remember Pierson, she was the national spokesperson for the Trump campaign in 2016, and over the past couple of years has defended racist Confederate monuments, promoted Donald Trump as the freedom-of-speech president, and worn a necklace on television made out of bullets. Pierson has been brought back into the public eye once again, named senior adviser for Trump’s 2020 campaign. Since that time she’s done what most Republicans have been doing—attempting to spread ignorant lies about popular Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Pierson was on MSNBC with Al Sharpton this weekend to discuss how Donald Trump isn’t a racist, even though Donald Trump is clearly a racist. Sharpton wanted to know from Pierson why there weren’t more people of color, and particularly black people, in Trump’s White House. Pierson first attempted to blame the lack of diversity in the West Wing on black people not taking jobs in the White House: “You mean those who took the job or those who were offered? Because those are two entirely different questions.” Sharpton, used to Pierson’s type of surrogacy, decided to put her into a timeout to return to a discussion with Media Matters for America founder David Brock.
Asking Brock whether or not the absolute lack of black people in Trump’s cabinet is a “striking absence,” Pierson interrupted to say there were “plenty of black people working in the West Wing.” Sharpton reminded her he had just asked her to name one person of color. That’s when Pierson gave this gem of an answer.
Because I’m not going to participate in the attempt to make this all about race. It is ridiculous. How many black people were in Abraham Lincoln’s West Wing? Is Abraham Lincoln a racist because he didn't have a black person in his White House? This is insane. This is an insane discussion.
Yes, that is an insane thing to say in a discussion. As an aside, Abraham Lincoln was a racist. So there’s that too.
You can head over here for discussion of Pierson’s peculiar understanding of American history.