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."
Cheddar Politics takes a deeper look at the takeaways from the Georgia primary elections on Tuesday. Georgia Public Broadcasting's local and state politics reporter, Stephen Fowler, joins us to discuss the limits of Trump endorsements and break down what the outcome in each race means.
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Following the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the debate over gun control has been reignited. While studies have shows most Americans agree on some additional regulations, there hasn't been much legislative traction even as gun violence worsens in the country. Brian Lemek, the executive director of Defend The Vote and the former executive director at Brady PAC for gun control, joined Cheddar to discuss reform efforts. "The lawmakers that we have aren't passing these at the federal level," he said. "That's the problem. We have the wrong people in charge."
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
The average city in California has a 38% higher cost of living than the average American city, according to a cost of living index. For many, the general minimum wage of $15/hour just doesn't cut it. Anti-poverty activist Joe Sanberg wants to get the minimum wage changed to $18/hour. He joins Cheddar News to discuss the Living Wage Act of 2022.
