International relations expert: Trump's racism is 'a cancer eating away at the Republican Party'
As the media uproar caused by President Donald Trump's comment calling El Salvador, Haiti and the nations of Africa "sh*thole countries" stretches into its third day, one visiting scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace called the president's comments a "cancer" for both the nation and the GOP.
"This kind of behavior is appalling," international relations expert David Rothkopf told MSNBC's Ari Melber on Friday evening. "I think it's a cancer eating away at the Republican Party. They are effectively accepting unacceptable behavior."
The assertion that Trump is a racist "is not an opinion any longer," the scholar said. "We have years of proof that Trump is a racist."
Rothkopf also noted that the problem is no longer lies solely with Trump and his administration.
"Every single day, the leadership of the GOP, or GOP party spokespeople and candidates, tolerate that," he said. "It becomes their story. It becomes the identity of the GOP."
"Let's be absolutely clear: Donald Trump is the worst of America," Rothkopf continued. "This kind of lying, this kind of racism, this kind of corruption is as bad as it gets, but it also weakens America."
The Carnegie scholar went on to commend the U.S. ambassador to Panama for resigning in protest of the administration, and said that more government officials should follow suit to send a message to the president that they will not tolerate his racism.
"I think it is time for somebody to put a flag in the ground and say, 'we will go no further,'" Rothkopf implored. "This ambassador who resigned in Panama is the first step, but what about [Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson? What about [national security adviser] H.R. McMaster? What about [Defense Secretary] James Mattis?"
These people, who were once "thought to be the axis of adults," have become "the axis of immorality," the scholar concluded.
"They are enabling him, validating him and they're damaging the institutions that they are at least ostensibly there to protect," he said.
Watch below, via MSNBC: