The perception of racism is 'an albatross around the president's neck': CNN's April Ryan

CNN's April Ryan on Monday said that it was remarkable that the Trump White House had to keep insisting that President Donald Trump is not a white nationalist.

Reacting to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's denial on Sunday that Trump is a racist, Ryan said it was astonishing to hear the White House have to regularly issue defensive denials about the president's bigotry, with the latest coming in the wake of a massacre of Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand that was carried out by someone who praised Trump for being a "symbol of white identity."

"This whole racial, bigoted perception of the president is an albatross around his neck and this administration's neck," she said. "For them to have to come out and say it on their own, especially after the most recent incident with this massacre in Christchurch. The manifesto by the gunman talked about... the white identity issue... Every time there is an issue of race that the nation is gripped in and talking about, they come out to dispel any perception or make it clear who they are."

New York Times reporter Alex Burns then chimed in to say how shocked he was that Trump aired a long list of grievances in the wake of the New Zealand massacre on Sunday without once denouncing white nationalist hatred.

"It seems like, at this point, whatever self-restraint existed is kind of gone," he said.

Watch the video below.