‘This Is How American Culture Will End’ One Staffer Wrote of the Appointment of a Muslim-American Judge
Paid campaign staffers for Donald Trump have posted racist memes, anti-Islam comments, and even a call for Secretary of State John Kerry to be hanged. The Associated Press reviewed the social media accounts of about 50 Trump campaign staffers, and gave the campaign a month to respond, which it has not.Â
“A graphic designer for Trump’s advance team approvingly posted video of a black man eating fried chicken and criticizing fellow blacks for ignorance, irresponsibility and having too many children,” one example the AP provided reads. “A Trump field organizer in Virginia declared that Muslims were seeking to impose Sharia law in America and that ‘those who understand Islam for what it is are gearing up for the fight,'” reads another.
A Florida grassroots organizer for Trump, Annie Marie Delgado of Palm Beach Gardens, according to the AP, “shared a discredited, hoax photo of the State Department’s Kerry with Jane Fonda, and commented: ‘I say hang them!'” She also wrote in another post, “How about this little white boy being murdered by a black man.”
Delgado also lamented what she apparently saw as the end of American culture.
“During her time with the campaign, Delgado deplored the appointment of a Muslim-American judge in New York,” the AP writes.
“Step by step… this is how American culture will end,” she wrote Feb. 27, saying it was only reasonable to believe that the judge would implement Sharia law.
The AP also reports on one Trump staffer from South Carolina:
Teresa Unrue, a field organizer and graphic designer in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for Trump’s advance team, shared a video on her Facebook account July 11 — the week before the Republican National Convention — of a black man eating fried chicken while shaming fellow black people.
“Why are you mad about slavery?” the man asks. “Y’all weren’t no damn slaves.”
“Had me crack’n up!! Thank you!” Unrue wrote of the video. “Please share this with people.”
Unrue in another post shared, “We need Islam control, not gun control.”
Unsurprisingly, many “accounts AP reviewed embraced conspiracy theories,” and racist statements.
Unrue posted a link to a website that alleged that the U.S. government assassinated Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this year after a history of heart trouble.
Racially charged social media posts from Trump campaign employees and associates have already been a repeated source of embarrassment. Trump fired one adviser who had used a racial slur to describe Obama’s children, and the campaign denounced Trump’s longtime Mar-a-Lago butler for saying he would support dragging Obama from the White House and hanging him.
By comparison, the AP also reviewed the social media accounts and even leaked DNC emails looking for similar hate speech or calls of violence.
The AP also reviewed the public social media accounts of more than three dozen employees of Hillary Clinton’s far larger campaign staff and found nothing as inflammatory. One staffer said Trump’s style of speaking reminded him of a roommate who had taken too many hallucinogenic mushrooms. AP also reviewed images attached to more than 19,000 stolen internal emails from the Democratic National Committee for racially or religiously inflammatory memes, finding nothing of note.
Trump has repeatedly said that as president he will provide “extreme vetting” of immigrants coming into America, including of their social media accounts.
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license