CNN's April Ryan tells The View: 'Trump tries to use me as a warning example because I'm a black woman'
CNN's April Ryan Thursday on "The View" said the Trump administration regularly tries to set her up as a warning example to other journalists because she's a black woman, but that she's unintimidated and won't back down.
"There's something about you, April. What is it?" joked host Joy Behar, noting that Ryan has also clashed with White House press secretaries Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
"Let me say this, let's put it on the table," Ryan replied, laughing. "I don't back down. I'm not afraid."
"I'm a black woman who is not perceived to be part of their base," she added. "So they use me as an example to show 'this is what can happen to you'. What they fail to realize is it's not about me, and I'm going to continue to do my job and that's what they don't like."
Ryan agreed that the president "says nasty things about black women", and noted a number of other African American women who have been similarly attacked by Trump, including reporter Yamiche Alcindor and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. She also accused the president of engaging in dog whistle politics about white nationalism.
"It is a sad day," she said, "when any reporter has to ask a sitting United States president if you are racist."
Watch the video below.