MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson accused President Trump of racism Wednesday night in his analysis of Trump's reaction to the alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of agents of the Saudi government. For good measure, Johnson has suggested that Trump is an admirer of murderers.
Appearing on Ari Melber's MSNBC show The Beat, Johnson imagined President Trump stating that, concerning Khashoggi: "I don't care, it was a brown journalist."
Johnson elaborated:
"I'm not going to name any particular news networks, but I suspect that if this was someone who was an American who was born here, of a different color, and perhaps representing a news outlet that the President was more happy with, he may have a very different opinion about how serious this is and whether or not Saudi Arabia should be held accountable."
Johnson was being oh-so-coy in saying he was not going to name "any particular news networks." Does anyone doubt he was alluding to Fox News?
Beyond that, if indeed the victim were an American citizen, that would —and should— change the reaction of an American President.
As to Johnson's allegation that Trump would have reacted differently had the victim been white, that is an ugly and unsupported accusation of racism.
Finally, Johnson claimed, speaking of "other" dictators, that Trump "admires their ability to basically kill or tacitly allow the death of anybody who criticizes them." So Johnson apparently believes that Trump would-if-he-could murder his liberal media critics and, last I checked, that hasn't happened and any notion that it will be happening on any sort of scale in this country must be living in some sick, doomsday dystopia.
