Sorry, Whoopi: Your 'countless racist remarks' nonsense is just more political noise

By Herman Cain —— Bio and Archives March 27, 2016

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Sometimes I feel badly for Ben Carson. He worked hard in his run for president – and you know I can relate – and when his campaign ended unsuccessfully he decided to endorse Donald Trump. Now sure, when you endorse someone, it’s fair that people ask you to defend that person’s positions, records, public statements, etc. And Donald Trump provides plenty of material for people to ask about. But when Dr. Carson went on The View last week, he didn’t get asked about anything Trump has actually done or said. Instead, Whoopi Goldberg put him on the spot by trying to hang on Dr. Carson something Trump has not done at all. It was something she completely made up.

Trump, according to Goldberg, has “made countless racist remarks.” How, she demanded, could an accomplished black man like Ben Carson support such a man? Well. Let’s back up. Donald Trump has not made “countless racist remarks.” As far as I know, he hasn’t made any. He has made two very high-profile statements that have gotten people screaming racism. One was that Mexico is sending many of its criminals across the U.S. border. The other was that we should stop admitting refugees from Muslim countries until we can figure out what’s going on with respect to radical Islamic terrorism. The media completely twisted both statements beyond recognition. Regarding the first, they claimed Trump had said all Mexican immigrants are rapists. He said no such thing. He simply said the Mexican government has a habit of dumping its criminals on us. That is a true statement, and it in no way casts aspersions on Mexicans in general. The second statement was a serious policy proposal about how to make sure radical Islamic terrorists don’t sneak into this country pretending to be “refugees,” but the media misrepresented it as Trump wanting to apply a “religious test” or something of the sort. So far from Trump having made “countless racist remarks,” he made two statements that were not racist at all but were portrayed as racist. But don’t try to tell that to Whoopi Goldberg. She neither pays much attention to the real facts nor, in all likelihood, much cares about them. The statement that Donald Trump has made “countless racist remarks” suits her preferred narrative, so she says it.

And of course, when she says it, lots of people simply believe it must have happened, because they heard Whoopi Goldberg say it happened on a TV show. You’re not allowed to say anything on TV that isn’t true, right? Carson tried to counter that nonsense by pointing out that Trump has a history of demanding blacks and Jews be admitted to private clubs where others wanted to keep them out. Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t care about that, or prefers to simply ignore it because her narrative is better served if she does. Far too many people choose a candidate on the basis of political noise like this. You hear something a lot. People are saying it. It’s out there. There must be something to it! There may not be anything at all to it. I know this may come as a shock to some, but people in the media and on television say things all the time that are simply not true. The best defense against political noise is to do your own research before you simply believe what people in the media are saying. Don’t let them spoon-feed you what they want you to think. There may be perfectly legitimate reasons to vote for or against Donald Trump – or any other candidate – but the political noise you hear is almost never legitimate.