Monday night, former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele suggested that Republicans act as if they don’t want black votes during a discussion with MSNBC’s Joy Reid and political strategist Angela Rye
The three were discussing remarks made last week by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani who questioned whether President Obama loves America and the apparent backlash for Gov. Scott Walker for refusing to answer questions regarding the president.
When the subject turned to the greater issue of the Republican party and race, Steele offered the following analysis:
What the party has to do is have it’s own, sort of internal come to Jesus [moment]. Do we really want black folks to vote for us? Do we really see them as a viable constituency as they once were within our party?
And unless a leader in the party is prepared to stand up and answer that affirmatively and tell the rest of the party to get in line and follow the course of America, the natural course, not only of the country but more importantly of our party, that this is intrinsic to us.
It’s just I don’t see the viability. It’s hard to go to a black audience and say legitimately we want you when everything we do says we don’t.
As one might expect, Conservatives are having a meltdown over those comments such as the conservative website The Right Scoop which did their best to use slight-of-hand to cloud the issues Steele was raising
You can watch the clip, below, and judge for yourself. The relevant portion begins at about the 6 minute and 15 second point.
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