Veteran ABC journalist Cokie Roberts on Sunday agreed with a Democratic strategist’s smear that Donald Trump’s “America First” mentality really means “white America First.” Appearing on a This Week panel, Jamal Simmons attacked, “The thing about this all that is so concerning to me is that the President is undermining all these American institutions. He's going after the press, he's going after the judiciary.”
Simmons sneered, “It's starting to make it seem a little bit, also, like ‘America first’ is really ‘white America first.’” Journalist Roberts agreed: “But I think there's a lot of truth to that. And it's interesting because the President himself keeps undermining the possibility of anything seeming normal.”
Roberts then fretted that Trump is “constantly undermining the media.” She lamented, “Congress is not going to stop this president.”
A partial transcript is below:
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This Week
2/12/17
9:46AM ET
JAMAL SIMMONS (Democratic strategist): The thing about this all that is so concerning to me is that the President is undermining all these American institutions. He's going after the press, he's going after the judiciary, things we're talking about. It's starting to make it seem a little bit, also, like "America first" is really "white America first," because if you look at what he's doing, he's going after immigrants. Even in his administration, the only reason we know who Colin Powell and Condi Rice are is because a Republican president appointed them to significant jobs. This President doesn't even have any African Americans, Latinos, in unusual jobs in his cabinet. This is something I think we all have to worry about, because the United States of America has been moving in a direction for last 30 or 40 years, where everybody gets to participate. We have been teaching our children that. And the reason you see so many Democrats, Progressives, and also independents on the streets is because this president is moving us away from the direction we've been headed.COKIE ROBERTS: But I think there's a lot of truth to that. And it’s interesting because the President himself keeps undermining the possibility of anything seeming normal. So for instance, yesterday, when there were all of these roundups of undocumented people in the country, the — the ICE people are saying, “Look, we're doing exactly what happened in the Obama administration. It's not anything unusual.” Then the President tweets, “I'm keeping my campaign promises. I'm getting all these people out of here.” And, those tweets are very damaging. What Katrina said is absolutely right. Today, again, he tweeted against the courts. If you start undermining the court system and constantly undermining the media the Congress is not going to stop this president. So you really try to get — any check on him.
