Lecture Notes
August
25, 2016
Thank you, Reno! It’s great to be back in Nevada…
My original plan for this visit was to focus on our agenda to help small businesses and entrepreneurs.
This week we proposed new steps to cut red tape and taxes, and make it
easier for small businesses to get the credit they need to grow and hire.
Because I believe that in America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it. We’ll be talking
a lot more about our economic plans in the days and weeks ahead. But today, I want to address something I hear from Americans
all over our country.
Everywhere I go, people tell me how concerned
they are by the divisive rhetoric coming from my opponent in this election. It’s like nothing we’ve heard before
from a nominee for President of the United States.
From
the start, Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia.
He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two
major political parties.
His disregard for the values that make
our country great is profoundly dangerous.
In
just the past week, under the guise of "outreach" to African Americans, Trump has stood up in front of largely white
audiences and described black communities in insulting and ignorant terms:
"Poverty. Rejection. Horrible education. No housing. No homes. No ownership.
Crime at levels nobody has seen…
Those are his words.
Donald Trump misses
so much.
He doesn’t see the success of black
leaders in every field…
The vibrancy of black-owned
businesses…Or the strength of the black church… He doesn’t see the excellence of historically black colleges
and universities or the pride of black parents watching their children thrive…And he certainly doesn’t have any
solutions to take on the reality of systemic racism and create more equity and opportunity in communities of color.
It takes a lot of nerve to ask people he’s ignored and mistreated
for decades, "What do you have to lose?" The answer is everything!
Trump’s lack of knowledge or experience or solutions would be bad enough.
But what he’s doing here is more sinister.
Trump is reinforcing harmful stereotypes and offering a dog whistle to his
most hateful supporters.
It’s a disturbing preview of what
kind of President he’d be.
This is what I want
to make clear today:
A man with a long history of racial discrimination,
who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet,
should never run our government or command our military.
If
he doesn’t respect all Americans, he can’t serve all Americans!
Now, I know some people still want to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.
They hope that he will eventually reinvent himself – that there’s
a kinder, gentler, more responsible Donald Trump waiting in the wings somewhere.
After all, it’s hard to believe anyone – let alone a nominee for President of the United States
– could really believe all the things he says.
But
the hard truth is, there’s no other Donald Trump. This is it.
Maya Angelou once said: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
Well, throughout his career and this campaign, Donald Trump has shown
us exactly who he is. We should believe him.
When
Trump was getting his start in business, he was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent apartments to black and
Latino tenants.
Three years later, the Justice Department
took Trump back to court because he hadn’t changed.
The
pattern continued through the decades.
State
regulators fined one of Trump’s casinos for repeatedly removing black dealers from the floor. No wonder the turn-over
rate for his minority employees was way above average.
And
let’s not forget Trump first gained political prominence leading the charge for the so-called "Birthers."
He promoted the racist lie that President Obama isn’t really an
American citizen – part of a sustained effort to delegitimize America’s first black President.
In 2015, Trump launched his own campaign for President with another racist
lie. He described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals.
And he accused the Mexican government of actively sending them across the border. None of that is true.
Oh, and by the way, Mexico’s not paying for his wall either.
If it ever gets built, you can be sure that American taxpayers will be
stuck with the bill.
Since then, there’s been a steady
stream of bigotry.
We all remember when Trump said a distinguished
federal judge born in Indiana couldn’t be trusted to do his job because, quote, "He’s a Mexican."
Think about that.
The man who today is the standard bearer of the Republican Party said a federal judge was incapable of doing
his job solely because of his heritage.
Even
the Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, described that as "the textbook definition of a racist comment."
To this day, he’s never apologized to Judge Curiel.
But for Trump, that’s just par for the course.
This is someone who retweets white supremacists online, like the user who
goes by the name "white-genocide-TM." Trump took this fringe bigot with a few dozen followers and spread his message
to 11 million people.
His campaign famously posted an anti-Semitic
image – a Star of David imposed over a sea of dollar bills – that first appeared on a white supremacist website.
The Trump campaign also selected a prominent white nationalist leader
as a delegate in California. They only dropped him under pressure.
When asked in a nationally televised interview whether he would disavow the support of David Duke, a former
leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Trump wouldn’t do it. Only later, again under mounting pressure, did he backtrack.
And when Trump was asked about anti-Semitic slurs and death threats coming
from his supporters, he refused to condemn them.
Through
it all, he has continued pushing discredited conspiracy theories with racist undertones.
Trump said thousands of American Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks. They didn’t.
He suggested that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy
assassination. Perhaps in Trump’s mind, because he was a Cuban immigrant, he must have had something to do with it.
Of course there’s absolutely no evidence of that.
Just
recently, Trump claimed President Obama founded ISIS. And then he repeated that nonsense over and over.
His latest paranoid fever dream is about my health. All I can say is, Donald,
dream on.
This is what happens when you treat the
National Enquirer like Gospel.
It’s what happens
when you listen to the radio host Alex Jones, who claims that 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombings were inside jobs. He said
the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre were child actors and no one was actually killed there.
Trump didn’t challenge those lies. He went on Jones’ show and
said: "Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down."
This man wants to be President of the United States.
I’ve stood by President Obama’s side as he made the toughest decisions a Commander-in-Chief ever
has to make.
In times of crisis, our country depends
on steady leadership… clear thinking… and calm judgment… because one wrong move can mean the difference
between life and death.
The last thing we need in the Situation
Room is a loose cannon who can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction, and who buys so easily into racially-tinged
rumors.
Someone detached from reality should
never be in charge of making decisions that are as real as they come.
It’s another reason why Donald Trump is simply temperamentally unfit to be President of the United
States.
Now, some people will say that his bluster
and bigotry is just over-heated campaign rhetoric – an outrageous person saying outrageous things for attention.
But look at the policies Trump has proposed. They would put prejudice
into practice.
And don’t be distracted by his
latest attempts to muddy the waters.
He may have some
new people putting new words in his mouth… but we know where he stands.
He would form a deportation force to round up millions of immigrants and kick them out of the country.
He’d abolish the bedrock constitutional principle that says if you’re
born in the United States, you’re an American citizen. He says that children born in America to undocumented parents
are, quote, "anchor babies" and should be deported.
Millions of them.
And he’d ban
Muslims around the world – 1.5 billion men, women, and children –from entering our country just because of their
religion.
Think about that for a minute. How would
it actually work? People landing in U.S. airports would line up to get their passports stamped, just like they do now.
But in Trump’s America, when they step up to the counter, the immigration
officer would ask every single person, "What is your religion?"
And then what?
What if someone says,
"I’m a Christian," but the agent doesn’t believe them.
Do they have to prove it? How would they do that?
Ever since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, America has distinguished itself as a haven for people fleeing
religious persecution.
Under Donald Trump, America would distinguish
itself as the only country in the world to impose a religious test at the border.
Come to think of it, there actually may be one place that does that. It’s the so-called Islamic State.
The territory ISIS controls. It would be a cruel irony if America followed its lead.
Don’t worry, some will say, as President, Trump will be surrounded by smart advisors who will rein
in his worst impulses.
So when a tweet gets under his skin and
he wants to retaliate with a cruise missile, maybe cooler heads will be there to convince him not to.
Maybe.
But
look at who he’s put in charge of his campaign.
Trump
likes to say he only hires the "best people." But he’s had to fire so many campaign managers it’s like
an episode of the Apprentice.
The latest shake-up
was designed to – quote – "Let Trump be Trump." To do that, he hired Stephen Bannon, the head of a right-wing
website called Breitbart.com, as campaign CEO.
To
give you a flavor of his work, here are a few headlines they’ve published:
"Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy."
"Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?"
"Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control Movement’s Human Shield"
"Hoist It High And Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage."
That one came shortly after the Charleston massacre, when Democrats and
Republicans alike were doing everything they could to heal racial divides. Breitbart tried to enflame them further.
Just imagine – Donald Trump reading that and thinking: "this
is what I need more of in my campaign."
Bannon
has nasty things to say about pretty much everyone.
This
spring, he railed against Paul Ryan for, quote "rubbing his social-justice Catholicism in my nose every second.
No wonder he’s gone to work for Trump – the only Presidential
candidate ever to get into a public feud with the Pope.
According
to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, Breitbart embraces "ideas on the extremist fringe of the
conservative right. Racist ideas.
Race-baiting ideas.
Anti-Muslim and anti-Immigrant ideas –– all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the ‘Alt-Right.’"
Alt-Right is short for "Alternative Right."
The Wall Street Journal describes it as a loosely organized movement,
mostly online, that "rejects mainstream conservatism, promotes nationalism and views immigration and multiculturalism
as threats to white identity."
The de facto merger
between Breitbart and the Trump Campaign represents a landmark achievement for the "Alt-Right." A fringe element
has effectively taken over the Republican Party.
This
is part of a broader story -- the rising tide of hardline, right-wing nationalism around the world.
Just yesterday, one of Britain’s most prominent right-wing leaders,
Nigel Farage, who stoked anti-immigrant sentiments to win the referendum on leaving the European Union, campaigned with Donald
Trump in Mississippi.
Farage has called for a ban on the children
of legal immigrants from public schools and health services, has said women are quote "worth less" than men, and
supports scrapping laws that prevent employers from discriminating based on race -- that’s who Trump wants by his side
The godfather of this global brand of extreme nationalism is Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
In fact, Farage has appeared regularly
on Russian propaganda programs.
Now he’s standing
on the same stage as the Republican nominee.
Trump
himself heaps praise on Putin and embrace pro-Russian policies.
He talks casually of abandoning our NATO allies, recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and of
giving the Kremlin a free hand in Eastern Europe more generally.
American presidents from Truman to Reagan have rejected the kind of approach Trump is taking on Russia
We should, too.
All of this adds up to something we’ve never seen before.
Of course there’s always been a paranoid fringe in our politics, steeped in racial resentment. But
it’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it, and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.
On David Duke’s radio show the other day, the mood was jubilant.
"We appear to have taken over the Republican Party," one white
supremacist said.
Duke laughed. There’s still more
work to do, he said.
No one should have any illusions about
what’s really going on here. The names may have changed… Racists now call themselves "racialists."
White supremacists now call themselves "white nationalists." The paranoid fringe now calls itself "alt-right."
But the hate burns just as bright.
And now Trump is
trying to rebrand himself as well. Don’t be fooled.
There’s
an old Mexican proverb that says "Tell me with whom you walk, and I will tell you who you are."
We know who Trump is. A few words on a teleprompter won’t change
that.
He says he wants to "make America great
again," but his real message remains "Make America hate again."
This isn’t just about one election. It’s about who we are as a nation.
It’s about the kind of example we want to set for our children and grandchildren.
Next time you watch Donald Trump rant on television, think about all the
kids listening across our country. They hear a lot more than we think.
Parents and teachers are already worried about what they’re calling the "Trump Effect."
Bullying and harassment are on the rise in our schools, especially targeting
students of color, Muslims, and immigrants.
At
a recent high school basketball game in Indiana, white students held up Trump signs and taunted Latino players on the opposing
team with chants of "Build the wall!" and "Speak English."
After a similar incident in Iowa, one frustrated school principal said, "They see it in a presidential
campaign and now it's OK for everyone to say this."
We
wouldn’t tolerate that kind of behavior in our own homes. How can we stand for it from a candidate for president?
This is a moment of reckoning for every Republican dismayed that the Party
of Lincoln has become the Party of Trump. It’s a moment of reckoning for all of us who love our country and believe
that America is better than this.
Twenty years ago,
when Bob Dole accepted the Republican nomination, he pointed to the exits and told any racists in the Party to get out.
The week after 9/11, George W. Bush went to a mosque and declared for
everyone to hear that Muslims "love America just as much as I do."
In 2008, John McCain told his own supporters they were wrong about the man he was trying to defeat. Senator
McCain made sure they knew – Barack Obama is an American citizen and "a decent person."
We need that kind of leadership again.
Every day, more Americans are standing up and saying "enough is enough" – including a lot
of Republicans. I’m honored to have their support.
And
I promise you this: with your help, I will be a President for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. For those who vote
for me and those who don't.
For all Americans
Because I believe we are stronger together.
It’s a vision for the future rooted in our values and reflected in a
rising generation of young people who are the most open, diverse, and connected we’ve ever seen.
Just look at our fabulous Olympic team.
Like Ibtihaj Muhammad, an African-American Muslim from New Jersey who won the bronze medal in fencing with
grace and skill. Would she even have a place in Donald Trump’s America?
When I was growing up, Simone Manuel
wouldn’t have been allowed to swim in the same public pool as Katie Ledecky. Now they’re winning Olympic medals
as teammates.
So let’s keep moving forward together.
Let’s stand up against prejudice and paranoia.
Let’s prove once again, that America is great because America is good
Thank you, and may God bless the United States.
