Republican strategist Rick Tyler told MSNBC Tuesday that President Donald Trump is clearly doubling-down on his attempts to court an all-white voting bloc for 2020. Tyler called it "vile" and "racist," noting that he doesn't say those words lightly.
Citing Washington Post reporter Phil Rucker, Tyler agreed that the Republican Party is trying to twist the issue to make it about ideology and not race. However, Trump never attacked specific issues; he told the women to go back to their countries of origin and called them terrorists.
"If you have a problem with these four women, tell me what they said and your problem with it," Tyler said. "That's not what he's doing. This is overt racism."
But Tyler said this is all a piece of the reelection strategy.
"Right now the president is engaged in a very risky strategy because he is actually turning it into a binary, which I don't think, obviously, most Americans are comfortable with," he explained. "And that is, you are either with a vile racist, and I don't say that lightly. The president has demonstrated over and over again, starting with the Central Park Five through birtherism through all of — through the s-hole countries and on and on and on and now we're supposed to believe that he didn't mean to say, 'Go back to Africa?'"
He noted that Trump didn't say it "literally" but if you look at the women, three of them have African heritage, when only one of them is actually from Africa.
"These are American citizens who are duly elected," Tyler continued. "I don't agree with their philosophy or ideology and argue against it strongly, but Trump is making this about race. And that is racism."
Trump claimed that this has nothing to do about racism and when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that it's clear Trump wants to "make America white Again," Trump pounced, saying she was the one who was racist for calling him out. in wake of the accusations.
Peter Nicholas, White House reporter for The Atlantic, agreed, saying that Trump is playing a "risky" game in assuming all white voters are racists. He narrowly won white women voters in 2016 and support for him in that demographic has plummeted, helping elect Democrats to Congress in 2018.
"Trump has run the risk — seeing that coalition shrink and seeing people put off by this rhetoric," Nicholas went on. "So, I'm seeing, I think, a recalibration."
He specifically cited Republican members of Congress, like Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is trying to make the attack about "ideas" and not the women themselves.
"But as Rick points out, he's running the risk of appearing an out and out racist," he closed.
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