After longtime Congressman Charlie Rangel was quoted in The Daily Beast comparing members of the Tea Party to “those white crackers” that violently opposed Civil Rights protesters in the South, reality show promoter Donald Trump went on Fox to complain that Paula Deen shouldn’t have been “crucified” for using the N-word if Rangel can use “cracker.”
Trump said on Fox that he was “surprised” that a “nice guy” like Rangel would say what he did in the profile by David Freedlander.
“If Charlie or whoever it was was a Republican and they made that statement, they’d be resigning from office right now,” said Trump, a bombastic Republican who at one time was considered a possible presidential candidate.
In his interview with Freedlander, Rangel said of the Tea Party: “It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police. They didn’t care about how they looked. It was just fierce indifference to human life that caused America to say enough is enough. ‘I don’t want to see it and I am not a part of it.’ What the hell! If you have to bomb little kids and send dogs out against human beings, give me a break.”
“FOX & Friends” host Steve Doocey suggested the makings of a “double standard,” to which Trump was quick to agree.
“Nothing will happen to Charlie,” Trump said. “I see it all the time. If you’re a Republican and you make a statement like that, it’s over. I mean, you are finished… It’s a very rough double standard.”
“Paula Deen was absolutely crucified, what they did with her,” Trump added. “I don’t know what even happened to her. I see everybody dropped her. She has really got some problems. It’s amazing.”
Fox News co-host Tucker Carlson then demanded that President Obama “take a stand” against Rangel, but Trump said that was unlikely to happen.
“Obama is going to take a pass,” he said. “They’re all going to take a pass. And that’s the way the country is right now.”
This is the same Trump who, upon Obama’s reelection in November, went on a Twitter rampage, saying the election was a “sham” and calling the Electoral College a “disaster for a democracy.”
“We can’t let this happen,” he tweeted. “We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!”
