On Monday we told you about an interview conducted by CBS's Norah O'Donnell with Maryland Democrat Governor Wes Moore, where Moore was allowed to avoid directly answering questions about recent revelations made in the Free Beacon, which call into question details of his life story which he has told over and over again. On Wednesday, Moore appeared on CNN's The Arena.
Host Kasie Hunt addressed the White House's National Governors Association's annual winter gathering held Feb.19–21, where reportedly neither Moore or Governor Jared Polis, (D-CO), have been invited to the White House dinner, something Moore has attributed to his race, even though Polis is not Black.
HUNT: So speaking of the President...an invitation was not extended to you, although I understand there's been a little bit of lack of clarity on whether that's actually the case. But now other Democratic governors are also saying that they might not attend... would you like to see all of your Democratic governors join you in refusing to attend the dinner if you're not invited?
So is he invited or not? It didn't seem to matter. He also indicated he will voluntarily skip the entire weekend.
MOORE: I'm not casting judgment on any Governor that chooses to attend. If they choose to attend the dinner, that is their prerogative, I will not... and I also know it's because the President of the United States does not get to get to determine what my worthiness is... If this is not going to be a serious gathering where we can talk about issues where we can address the fact that everything is more expensive under the President, if we can address the fact that why he is spending his time giving tax cuts to his friends while making life more expensive on everyone else, if that's not the intent, then I have no desire of actually sitting down.
Then Hunt played the race card, "Do you think his lack of extension of an invitation to you, is the President motivated by race?"
MOORE: You know, honestly, I think that's a real question for President Trump you know, what I know is, and what I've shown is I will work with anybody...
Remember, Governor Polis is not invited and he is white, but Hunt persisted. "What's it about for President if it's not about race?"
MOORE: I think the President just seems to have a very real issue with the fact that I do not bow to him and I will stand up to him because I will always defend my people... But you know, the fact that I'm the only Black governor in this country and he seems to have a real issue with me, I think that's an issue he's got to take up.
When Hunt asked about an accusation from the Free Beacon, Moore did exactly what he did on CBS on Sunday, he did not answer the question.
HUNT: You say you are who you are, conservative outlet the Free Beacon recently wrote about a story you often tell about your great grandfather and your family and how and why they left the United States.. They report, they look at church records. They say the story is not true, that the Ku Klux Klan did not force your family to leave, that your family left voluntarily...is there any truth to what the Free Beacon has written here?
MOORE: There is no truth to what a right wing blog writes about me. No, there is not.. I know my family's history is, you know, my grandfather is James Joshua Thomas, a man who was born in South Carolina and my family when he was just a toddler, that he was run out by the Ku klux Klan, that he still returned to this country. He became the first Black minister in the history of the Dutch Reformed Church... And he's maybe the most patriotic American I've ever met... And when the threats that came to his father, when people started making intimidating threats to him, when he became the first Black minister in the history of the Dutch Reformed church, he's stuck and he kept his chest out.. And so if anyone wants to question my family's history or question the history of the Ku Klux Klan, they should really ask the Ku Klux Klan, because they're the ones who should have the answers.
Hunt did follow-up, "And those church records that show that one of your family members left voluntarily to take over for someone who had passed away, those records are wrong."
All he could do was repeat, "They should really ask the Ku Klux Klan about what their activities were in the 1920's." Sad.
