CNN host D.L. Hughley turned to the standard left-wing tactic of playing the Nazi card against Republicans on his program on Saturday evening: “The tenets of the Republican Party are amazing and they seem warm and welcome. But when I watch it be applied -- like you didn’t have to go much further than the Republican National Convention....It literally look[s] like Nazi Germany.” He went on to say that blacks weren’t welcome in the party: “It just does not seem -- like not only are we not welcome -- not only are we not welcome, but they don’t even care what we think.” He later described the GOP as “reactionary.” [audio available here]
The stand-up comedian-turned-TV host made the remark during a segment with Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Chuck D, a former member of the hip-hop group Public Enemy. Unfortunately, Steele did not verbally react to Hughley’s Nazi characterization. Chuck D, on the other hand, expressed his agreement with the host about blacks supposedly not being welcome in the Republican Party: “I covered the Republican convention in ‘96 for MTV...and -- seriously, their agenda was totally somewhere else, which totally -- you know, didn’t have black people or people of color in mind.” He then expressed his belief that there should be more major parties in the U.S.
The CNN host then returned to characterizing the GOP: “A lot of the things I see Republicans do specifically are reactionary. They’ll go, you know what -- oh, they don't like Hillary? Let’s give them Sarah Palin. They voted for Obama. Let's give them Michael Steele, and the other guy who will not show who he is yet. And so, it is always so -- it is so plastic, that you go, wow, is this what they think?...That’s what seems so off-kilter to me.”
This isn't the first time Hughley has expressed his disdain for Republicans on cable TV. In March 2006, the comic went on an obscenity-laced tirade against President George W. Bush on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher: "If I hear one more person tell me how this man is a man of faith, I think I’ll lose my mother-f***ing mind....When thousands and thousands of people were being, dying in New Orleans, this son of a bitch didn’t do sh*t, and that’s very un-Christlike to me."
The transcript of the relevant portion of the segment, which began 15 minutes into the 10 pm Eastern hour of Hughley’s program, “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News:”
D.L. HUGHLEY: ...The tenets of the Republican Party are amazing and they seem warm and welcome. But when I watch it be applied -- like you didn’t have to go much further than the Republican National Convention.
MICHAEL STEELE: Agreed.
HUGHLEY: It literally look[s] like Nazi Germany -- it really did. I make -- said that point. It just does not seem -- like not only are we not welcome -- not only are we not welcome, but they don’t even care what we think. And that --
STEELE: Well, I’m here now --
HUGHLEY: That seems to be the way I --
CHUCK D: I’d like to say -- I covered the Republican convention in ‘96 for MTV. I have been involved with the Choose or Lose and all -- Rock the Vote for the last 12 to 20 years and -- seriously, their agenda was totally somewhere else, which totally -- you know, didn’t have black people or people of color in mind. So they have a big -- they may have the right person to try to sell them. I’m just saying the tricks should be over as using something else to try to get black people. I mean, real talk is going to have to get people of color for real things. I mean, I feel that -- first of all, the two-party system is just played. It has to expand. The Green Party had Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, with issues and dealing with a lot of issues that we kind of felt, but also at the same time, maybe the rest of America would have had a problem with it. So it’s got to be a situation where maybe three parties -- maybe four parties, talk to all of the people, and maybe the whole system being repaired.
HUGHLEY: Well, you’re right. A lot of the things I see Republicans do specifically are reactionary. They’ll go, you know what -- oh, they don't like Hillary? Let’s give them Sarah Palin. They voted for Obama. Let's give them Michael Steele, and the other guy who will not show who he is yet. And so, it is always so -- it is so plastic, that you go, wow, is this what they think? They think that we -- they’re missing the entire point of what happened during the Obama transformation. They missed the entire point, and I don’t understand that. That’s what seems so off-kilter to me.
STEELE: But let me mention a couple of things. There was a Michael Steele before there was a Barack Obama. I mean, the reality of it is, I had established -- I was the only black lieutenant governor in the country at the time. I was the only statewide black elected official when I was lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007. And then Obama got elected in 2005. And so that wasn’t about, you know, oh, geez, let’s do this because of Obama. The fact is -- let me make the second point. The second point is -- you know, when I talk about hip-hop, I’m really not talking about specifically just hip-hop. I’m talking about the Republican Party having -- having [an] urban agenda, an agenda where our community lives, where our community is creating wealth, going to school, living and dying -- and have something to say to them. I’m not trying to play off of hip-hop. I’m not trying to use hip-hop. What I’m trying to recognize is there something of value that's happening in the community that’s reflected on the economic side of hip-hop, and I think that’s something we’re talking about.
