The Republican National Committee is ardently defending President Trump against unified condemnation from Democrats over a Twitter thread the president posted Sunday attacking four freshman Congresswomen of color that was widely lambasted as racist, xenophobic, and nativist.
"I think it's really inappropriate," Liz Harrington, a spokesperson for the RNC, told Cheddar Tuesday regarding the calls that the President is a racist. "This is a debate that has nothing to do with race, it has nothing to do with gender, it has nothing to do with religion, it has everything to do with ideas."
President Trump also pushed back Tuesday morning, writing in a tweet "I don't have a Racist bone in my body!"
The GOP leadership is largely behind the president. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters, clearly, "the president is not a racist." At a separate press conference, when asked if he thought Trump was racist, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said "No."
"I believe this is about ideology," McCarthy told reporters. "It's about socialism versus freedom."
Harrington rebuked the anger coming from the Democrats, denouncing them as "socialists" who trash the country.
"I think it's very inappropriate to categorize the President's tweets as racist, it has nothing to do with that, it has everything to do with what we want our country to be, and we want to keep it America," she added.
Only a handful of Republican members of Congress have condemned Trump for his tweets, which came as the 2020 election approaches and the president appears to be increasingly willing to push boundaries in an effort to mobilize his loyal base.
The RNC spokesperson was quick to pounce on the ideological differences between Trump and the 2020 Democratic front-runners, saying this is a great time for "contrast."
"It's a perfect opportunity to show the contrast because we've seen over the past two and a half years, the president has delivered for this economy, we've restored freedom and prosperity." Harrington claimed.
"It is the entire democratic 2020 field calling for open borders, calling for socialized medicine, calling to get rid of the electoral college, pack the Supreme Court, very radical ideas that are antithetical to our founding," Harrington added. "So we're gonna keep showing that contrast."
As negotiations drag on in Washington, DC over President Biden's social spending bills, Senate Democrats have introduced a new idea to fund Biden's plans: taxing the unrealized capital gains held by billionaires. Barron's reporter Sabrina Escobar joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she explains what's in the billionaire tax proposal, who it will impact, and why it's on the table.
Hunter Walker joins Cheddar News to talk about his report in Rolling Stone that revealed how members of Congress and the White House helped plan the protest that turned violent on January 6.
Jill and Carlo discuss the pending approval for Pfizer's vaccine for kids, the state of anti-Semitism three years after Tree of Life, potential criminal charges in the 'Rust' prop gun shooting and more.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a bill into law on Tuesday that restricts transgender students from playing on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity. Democratic State Representative Mary E. Gonzalez joined Cheddar to discuss the ramifications for transgender youth the new law represents. She also disputed the bill's proponents who argue that the measure is a matter of fairness for girls in sports, noting that various medical groups have affirmed that transgender athletes do not inherently hold an advantage over cisgender ones.
COP26 been dealt a blow as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose countries are responsible for a third of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions, will not be in attendance. Bertrand Piccard, Chairman and Founder of the Solar Impulse Foundation, joins Cheddar Climate, where he discusses what he expects to see when the summit commences in Glasgow.
Social media platforms TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube are facing questions in DC about consumer protections, data security, and product safety for young users. Emily Birnbaum, tech lobbying and influence reporter at Politico, joined Cheddar to provide some background into what led to the congressional hearing and the potential outcome. Birnbaum noted that social media platforms have been attempting to distance themselves from Facebook and the ongoing bad press it garnered in recent months.
