Former Reagan political advisor Jeffrey Lord appeared on CNN New Day with Alisyn Camerota on Thursday morning and engaged in, at best, racially insensitive hyperbole when discussing Donald Trump and healthcare. Lord referred to Trump as the “Martin Luther King of healthcare.” Fellow guest Symone Sanders, former national press secretary for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, was not having any of it.
This type of polarizing political food fighting has become commonplace in the media. But what Lord does here goes beyond prevailing partisan lines or orthodoxy. Lord starts his comment by saying, “I want to say something here that I know will probably drive Symone crazy…” That qualifier lets you know Lord knew exactly what he was doing and intended to infuriate Symone with his comment. Language is very important, the idiom ‘drive someone crazy’ is to literally force someone into a state of insanity or mental instability. How can words do that? Comparing a humanitarian, civil rights activist, and one of the most important figures the world has ever produced to a man who at best is racist, misogynist, and xenophobic; might do it.
Lord continued, saying:
When I was a kid, President Kennedy did not want to introduce the Civil Rights bill because he said it wasn’t popular, he didn’t have the votes for it. Dr. King kept putting people in the streets in harm’s way to put the pressure on.
It was at this moment Symone, could not hold back any longer and responded with the following:
Okay Jeffrey. You do understand that Dr. King was marching for Civil Rights because people that looked like me were being beaten? Dogs were being sicced on them? Basic human rights were being withheld from these people merely because of the color of their skin? So let’s not equate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — a humanitarian, a Nobel Peace Prize winner — to the vagina-grabbing President Donald Trump.
For Lord to state that Dr. King put people in harm’s way is morally reprehensible and irresponsible. King didn’t put anyone in harm’s way, he fought for the equality and rights of black people. As a result of the civil protests, the government and authorities responded with state sanctioned violence. Who put whom in harm’s way?
Take a look at the full video segment below.
WATCH: Jeffrey Lord this morning on CNN: “President Trump is the Martin Luther King Jr of health care.”
cc: @BerniceKing pic.twitter.com/Ioo5nYlxSR
— Yashar (@yashar) April 13, 2017