Touré Faces Backlash For Tweeting to Trump Voters ‘I Hope The Pain and Anxiety You Feel Now is Excruciating’

Sarah RumpfNov 6th, 2020, 3:06 pm
 

Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for i.am angel foundation.

As Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory seems more and more inevitable, journalist and commentator Touré had some sharp words for supporters of President Donald Trump, posting several tweets slamming them for voting “against America and for a cult leader,” and saying that he hoped the “pain and anxiety you feel now is excruciating.”

With the vote margins in the final states tilting in Biden’s favor late Thursday evening, a number of the former vice president’s supporters, including Touré, began posting messages on social media that were both jubilant and often expressing a high degree of schadenfreude.

The first tweet especially went viral, drawing critics from the right and even some on the left, like liberal blogger Andrew Sullivan.

Toure wasn’t without allies who agreed with his stance:

Touré, for his part, was unfazed by the reactions, tweeting that he had “no grace, no empathy, and no patience for the thoughtless, racist deplorables who supported Trump and worked to destroy this nation.”

Reached for comment by Mediaite, Touré said that the 2016 election had been “extremely painful” for him and many liberals, and Trump had turned out to be “worse than many of us expected.”

Trump’s “MAGA” political movement “isn’t about any ideas,” he said, “it’s about a cult of personality and white identity politics and how he makes his people feel — tough, strong, masculine, unapologetic, supreme.”

Accordingly, he explained, wishing for them to “feel pain” was both “a wish to transfer the pain we felt after 2016” but also a reflection of how liberals felt they were trying to “change the world for the better” while Trump supporters just “ultimately wanted to ‘own the libs.'”

“To see them lose fills me with schadenfreude,” he continued. Touré defined the “animating spirit” of the Trump campaign and presidency as “a fervent support for white supremacy,” leaving him feeling “furious” at the part of the country that “allowed itself to be fooled by Trump and the right wing propaganda machine, a part that voted first with its whiteness….in supporting Trump, they have committed a deep sin against the country and they put the country at risk in a very serious way.”

Asked if he thought there was any way to reconcile with Trump voters, a way for the country to move forward, Touré drew a clear line of distinction between his role and the likely president-elect’s.

“How the country moves forward is Biden’s job,” he said. “Not mine. Biden does not share my view. I am angry at Trump and Trumpers for the hate and the racism they’ve spread and the lies that they’ve swallowed. They’ve damaged the country and we will spend years if not decades cleaning this up.”

Tags:
Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.