Opinion: Trump’s most vile debate comments

Editor’s note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of the daily show “The Dean Obeidallah Show” on SiriusXM Radio. threadThe views expressed in this commentary are his own. Further comments On CNN.

CNN
—

Since last week’s presidential debate, there has been near-constant news coverage in numerous op-eds, political podcasts and on cable TV about whether President Joe Biden should withdraw from the Democratic presidential nomination.

But while Biden’s performance on Thursday was a legitimate issue, the media’s focus on it all but condoned former President Donald Trump’s vile and (in the opinion of many) racist comments during the debate — and Trump’s comments were far more egregious than Biden’s.

First, there was Trump’s derogatory use of the word Palestinian. This came up during a discussion of the Gaza war, where Trump said, “Let Israel finish the job.” Then there was Biden’s criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for holding back on military action. Notably, it was these same forces that were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them women and children, and that, according to the UN, caused an ever-growing humanitarian catastrophe, along with widespread destruction of homes.

My late father was a Palestinian immigrant. Trump used his father’s roots as an insult during the exchange, saying Biden had “become like a Palestinian.” To make matters worse, Trump repeated the word “Palestinian” as a slur at a rally in Virginia on Friday, saying of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, “He became a Palestinian. He’s a Palestinian now,” a remark that appeared to suggest Schumer, who is Jewish, is somehow not supportive enough of Israel.

If Trump had said Biden had “gone black” or “gone Jewish” in an attempt to insult the president, we would have rightly howled in outrage. But after Trump used the term Palestinian, we have heard relatively few condemnations. Certainly, some groups have criticized the vile remark, but it deserves more backlash than it has received. The insensitive use of Palestinian identity as an insult is a reminder that their lives mean nothing to some politicians who believe they can score points by demonizing and even dehumanizing them.

President Trump’s use of the term Palestinian as an insult is an abject attempt to erase and deny the humanity of Palestinians, but it is not the only example of American politicians showing callous indifference to their plight. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would prohibit the State Department from citing Gaza Ministry of Health statistics on the number of Palestinians killed or injured by Israeli forces in Gaza.

In other words, the Republican-led House of Representatives is trying to silence the US State Department from even being allowed to cite health agency statistics, apparently because the number of Palestinian men, women and children massacred would be a PR problem for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

During the debate, Trump also unsubstantiated the claim that immigrants coming to the country are “stealing jobs from black people,” a claim that understandably raised alarm given Trump’s record of racist comments against black people and his defense of white supremacists. And immigration groups and think tanks that have studied the issue have long maintained that the majority of immigrants coming to the country are not taking American jobs.

Some have correctly pointed out that Trump has made clear his view that black Americans are relegated to low-wage, menial jobs that anyone can do. Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Sen. James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, noted that Trump’s “black jobs” comments show “that Trump has contempt for black people.” But that’s nothing new, Clyburn added. “He’s demonstrated that his whole life.”

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, also slammed Trump’s comments, saying, “There are no black jobs. This false portrayal denies that black talent exists everywhere. We are doctors, lawyers, teachers, police officers, firefighters. The list goes on,” adding that “the divisive nature of this comment should come as no surprise to Donald Trump.”

In fact, when it comes to the world of work, Black Americans have fared very well under the Biden administration.

Black unemployment hit 4.8% in April 2023, the lowest it has ever been during his presidency. But Trump wasn’t talking about hard data or provable facts. Though Trump has long maintained he’s not a racist, he has promoted what sounds to many of his critics like racist drivel, perhaps to appeal to voters who he believes will be duped into supporting him.

The same can be said about Trump’s claim that immigrants are taking “Hispanic jobs,” a line that again reveals Trump’s own bias regarding the types of jobs he believes Latinos hold, as opposed to presumably “white jobs.” It is worth noting that under Biden, the Hispanic unemployment rate hit a record low of 3.9% in September 2022.

Biden’s performance on Thursday is up for debate. But what’s not up for debate is that Trump is once again engaging in egregious bigoted behavior because he believes it will get him back to the White House. The only question is whether enough Americans will reject Trump’s vileness and ensure he is never invited back to the White House again.