On the Thursday edition of MSNBC's All In, The Root's politics editor and MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson demonstrated how difficult it is for liberal commentators to settle for giving sober criticism and avoid going into over the top hysterics when reacting to President Donald Trump making incendiary comments that are actually worthy of rebuke.
During a discussion of Trump reportedly deriding Haiti and other Third World nations as "shithole" countries, Johnson declared that the President is both an "enemy" to and a "clear and present danger to non-white people in America." He also warned that Trump is a "terrorist sympathizer" that Democrats should not "negotiate" with whose policies would make the U.S. "in danger as a sovereign nation."
At 8:18 p.m. ET, fill-in host Joy Reid read comments from Louisiana Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond complaining that Trump's campaign slogan was "code" for "make America white again," and then went to Johnson for his reaction. The race-obsessed MSNBC contributor began:
We've been saying this for a long time, and this is another reminder. The President is a white supremacist -- we heard in Charlottesville the President is a terrorist sympathizer, and our President is a clear and present danger to non-white people in America. It's that simple. There's no reason to pretend that that's not what's going on.
And what's important about this is not just how his heart feels because I've never cared about that, and that's not what's important. This manifests in policy -- this manifests in judicial policy -- this manifests in immigration policy -- this manifests in how this administration has dealt with American citizens in Puerto Rico who are dying because they don't consider them to be real Americans.
He then called Trump an "enemy" of minorities as he added:
Unless the Democratic party realizes that this man is an enemy to non-white people in America -- and this is not an exaggeration -- everything in his rhetoric and policy has said so -- we will be in danger as a sovereign nation. We have to realize that this President has made it abundantly clear since he got into office, he does not want to make a space for non-white people to participate.
A bit later, the MSNBC contributor characterized the President as someone that Democrats should not "negotiate with" because he "sympathizes with terrorirsts," referring to the KKK. Johnson: "It cannot be said enough: This a national security threat. You don't negotiate with people who sympathize with terrorists -- and that's what this President is doing."
