Ed Henry Plays Trump Super Bowl Ad, Then Asks Buttigieg: How Can You Say Voters Are Ignoring President’s Racism?

 

Fox News’ Ed Henry spoke with Pete Buttigieg earlier today, hours before the Iowa caucuses are set to begin, and asked him about the comments he’s made about Trump supporters.

To recap: last year Buttigieg said that at best, Trump supporters are “looking the other way on racism.” He stood by those comments on CNN yesterday and said, “I’m very concerned about the racial division that this president has fostered, and I’m meeting a lot of voters who are no longer willing to look the other way on that, looking for a new political home.”

On Fox today, Henry questioned how he can talk about “bringing people together and reaching out to Trump voters” when he’s made comments like that.

Henry went on to bring up the president’s Super Bowl ad last night, saying, “[He] has an ad last night that quotes Alice Johnson, an African-American woman who got a second chance because of the president.”

The Trump ad spotlighted Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison for a non-violent drug offense and was granted clemency by the president, in the context of the Trump administration’s record on criminal justice reform.

“How can you attack not just the president but 63 million people in America who voted for him, when you have African-American women like Alice Johnson saying ‘This is a president who gave me a second chance’?”

Buttigieg said Trump signing the First Step Act is one of the few things he would agree with POTUS on, but continued:

“It doesn’t change the incredibly cruel and divisive racial rhetoric that comes out of this White House that is one of the many reasons that I’m meeting not only Democrats but Republicans, who tell me that they struggle to look their children in the eye and explain to them how this is the President of the United States.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!

Tags:

Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac