CNN showed a complete double standard by smacking Republican Allen West
for his "plantation" remarks while giving liberal Cornel West a pass
for the same offense.
On Tuesday morning, anchor Carol Costello played a clip of West
decrying the "21st century plantation" for blacks and suggested that
such a statement hurt the GOP's minority outreach. However, when liberal
Cornel West ripped the "Obama plantation" and said Al Sharpton was its
"head house Negro" on Sunday's New Day, neither CNN co-host called him on it.
[Video below. Audio here [1].]
Hitting Obama from the left, West said that "we witnessed yesterday the
coronation of our dear brother Al Sharpton as the house Negro on the
Obama plantation," because Sharpton was spouting "Obama propaganda"
instead of criticizing him. Yet West has been a welcome guest on CNN
before, and neither of the CNN co-hosts challenged his inflammatory
"plantation" remark after he made it.
In fact, only liberal CNN contributor LZ Granderson has challenged West for his rhetoric. Back in July, Granderson noted in a CNN.com op-ed [2] that West said Sharpton was "on the Obama plantation," on Tavis Smiley's radio show.
Anyhow, on Tuesday Costello dug up Republican Allen West's remark that
blacks were on a "21st century plantation" with black leaders as
"overseers." He had added that "I'm here as the modern-day Harriet
Tubman to kind of lead people on the underground railroad away from that
plantation into a sense of sensibility."
Costello tied those comments to the GOP's minority outreach efforts: "But as
Priebus cris-crosses the country in an effort to repair minority
relations, people like West and others could be hurting his efforts with
statements like these."
She added that "It's hard to take back words, though, from anyone."
Then Costello hosted a liberal, HLN contributor Jason Johnson who had
met with RNC chair Reince Priebus, to give his analysis of the party's
outreach to minorities. Johnson predictably cast the GOP as divided and
full of "schizophrenia."
CNN couldn't even bring on a Republican or a conservative to provide
the counter-balance for Johnson's liberal bias. Johnson is a CNN regular
and usually appears on a CNN panel to provide the liberal side of a
debate.
Costello absurdly asked why Colin Powell wasn't invited to the RNC
luncheon along with Allen West. Perhaps she forgot that Powell twice
voted for President Obama.
Below is a transcript of the segment, which aired on CNN Newsroom on August 27 at 9:42 a.m. EDT:
[9:42]
CAROL COSTELLO: The fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington is
bringing together Americans of all backgrounds, including political
parties. Republicans kicking off the week with their own commemoration.
At a luncheon attended by RNC chairman Reince Priebus and prominent
black Republicans like South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and former
Congressman Allen West of Florida. But as Priebus cris-crosses the
country in an effort to repair minority relations, people like West and
others could be hurting his efforts with statements like these.
(Video Clip)
ALLEN WEST, former congressman (R-Fla.): You have this 21st century
plantation that has been out there where the Democrat party has forever
taken the black vote for granted and you have established certain black
leaders who are nothing more than the overseers of the plantation. So
I'm here as the modern-day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the
underground railroad away from that plantation into a sense of
sensibility.
Rep. STEVE KING (R-Iowa): There are kids that were brought into this
country by their parents unknowing that they were breaking the law. And
they will say to me and others who defend the rule of law, we have to do
something about the 11 million. And some of them are valedictorians.
For everyone who is a valedictorian, there is another 100 out there
that they weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of
cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the
desert.
(End Video Clip)
COSTELLO: In fairness, Republicans did condemn Congressman King's
immigration statements. Speaker John Boehner calling them ignorant and
not a reflection of the party. It's hard to take back words, though,
from anyone. Joining me now from Washington, HLN contributor and Hiram
College political science professor Jason Johnson. Hi, Jason.
JASON JOHNSON, HLN contributor: Hi, there.
COSTELLO: OK. So Mr. Priebus asked you to sit down with him so he can
find a way to repair relations with minority groups. Tell me what that
was like.
JOHNSON: It was really interesting. It was – it was a small number of
African-American journalists and pundits and – and I can tell you, if
you do the eye test, Reince Priebus, he's sincere. He really does want
the Republican Party to reach out to African-Americans. He wants to do a
long-term plan, hiring people within the black community to reach out
and talk about what the GOP has to offer. The problem is, the rest of
his party outside of that room probably disagrees with almost everything
he was trying to do. But I think he, and most of the people there, were
very sincere.
COSTELLO: So, his biggest problem is members of the Republican Party?
JOHNSON: Exactly. A perfect example is, Representative Sensenbrenner
from Wisconsin said yesterday, got in front of this entire crowd of
people and said, the number one priority of the Republican Party needs
to be replacing Section Four of the Voting Rights Act. And people in the
room cheered. And yet when we got into the room later on and talked to
pundits and journalists, there were many conservative Republicans there
who said they would go to war with him over that. And so that's the sort
of, you know, schizophrenia they've got in the party.
COSTELLO: Well, it's interesting you bring that up because Colin
Powell, who is an African-American and, of course, a Republican, said
that the fight against voting rights in this country would backfire on
the Republican Party. Let's listen to what he said.
(Video Clip)
COLIN POWELL, former Secretary of State: But here's the – here's what I
say to my Republican friends. The country is becoming more diverse.
Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans are going to
constitute the majority of the population in another generation. You say
you want to reach out, you say you want to have a new message, you say
you want to see if you can bring some of these voters to the Republican
side. This is not the way to do it. The way to do it is to make it
easier for them to vote and then give them something to vote for that
they can believe in.
(End Video Clip)
COSTELLO: So, you know, I'm just wondering, Allen West was invited to this luncheon. Was Colin Powell? Why wasn't he there?
JOHNSON: Yeah, there were a lot of prominent names that weren't there,
and I thought that was interesting as well. Colin Powell wasn't there.
Allen West was there. I had a chance to chat with him.
I think one of the other things about who wasn't there is it was a
majority black room and that's not really the demographics of the
Republican Party. I think it would have been better if you would have
more white members of the party there, as well. This can't be an effort
by just black people and Reince Priebus. This needs to be an effort by
the total party to really reach out to black voters. They can never win
another national election if they're getting less than 10 percent of the
black vote.
COSTELLO: But if it's in your mind -- African-Americans voted for
President Obama, what 93 percent of African-Americans voted for
President Obama? So if it's in your mind that African-Americans will
always vote for a black candidate over a white candidate, then what's
the answer? If that's in your mind?
JOHNSON: Well, see, and that – that's the problem. There's too many
Republicans who think that and they just dismiss 47 percent of the vote.
You look at Bob Dole. Bob Dole got 14 percent of the African-American
vote and that was against the first black President, Bill Clinton.
So there is a message out there that the Republican Party can use, but
they've got to stand up like Ken Mehlman did, you know former RNC chair.
He stood in front of the NAACP and said, "Look, I'm going to have a
zero tolerance policy towards racist comments." That's what Reince
Priebus needs to do. He needs to shut down the members of the party who
keep saying racist and offensive things that scare African-American and
Latino voters away from the party.
COSTELLO: Jason Johnson thanks so much.