A Face the Nation segment on former President Donald Trump’s remarks at the Black Conservative Federation gala in South Carolina led into a bizarre take by Robert Costa lamenting the lack of a GOP reckoning for Trump on immigration, of all things. Perhaps, at this point, we should reconsider naming the program “Faceplant the Nation”.
Watch the segment, as aired on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, February 25th, 2024:
MARGARET BRENNAN: As for the former president, his Friday night remarks at the Black Conservative Federation gala in Columbia, South Carolina, continued to overshadow his victory.
DONALD TRUMP: Black conservatives understand better than most that some of the greatest evils in our nation's history have come from corrupt systems that try to target and subjugate others to deny them their freedom and deny them their rights. You understand that. I think that's why the black people are so much on my side now because they see what's happening to me, happens to them. These lights are so bright in my eyes that I can't see too many people out there, but- I can only see the black ones. I can't see any white ones you see, that's how far I've come.
BRENNAN: We begin with CBS News Chief Election and Campaign Correspondent Robert Costa who joins us from Charleston. Bob, this was an open primary in South Carolina, but just 3% of voters were black. Do Donald Trump's remarks about black Americans give the party any pause here?
ROBERT COSTA: It's giving Nikki Haley a road ahead at this point, Margaret. She and her campaign believe there are many traditional Republicans across the country who are fed up, not only with former President Trump's legal problems, but his incendiary comments on race, and they believe that they- that could ostracize key voters across the country come November. That's why she's staying in right now, going to Michigan this week for that primary, staying in through super Tuesday. But there is real worry that as Trump takes over the party and the Republican National Committee, there’s no reckoning about how he’s handling issues like race and immigration.
A reckoning for Trump on immigration? What is this, Univision? What’s Costa even talking about? Polling suggests that this issue, especially in this environment, is among Trump’s strongest. Inasmuch as there will be a reckoning, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be for Trump. Not in this political environment, not with this current border crisis raging the way it is.
The segment seems to serve little purpose beyond trying to build a permission structure upon which Nikki Haley continues her presidential campaign beyond South Carolina. And it was weird to see that mashed up with Trump’s comments at Friday’s event. It is as if the allegedly wronged black conservatives were little more than props with which to advance the pro-Haley talking points.
As of this writing, the Koch network has announced it is no longer spending on the GOP primary. The segment is quickly aging, and not at all well.
