CNN panelist Nina Turner brought Sunday morning’s “State of the Union” to a grinding halt, arguing that the current situation in Virginia had “nothing to do with Donald Trump.”
WATCH:
Host Jake Tapper began the segment by asking Democratic California Rep. Nanette Barragán about the situation in which Virginia Democrats find themselves — namely the fact that if the top three Democrats resign (two for admitting to appearing in blackface and one amid allegations of rape) the governorship would fall to a Republican.
Barragán responded by saying that the party of the person who would assume power should not prevent Democrats from doing the right thing — but then she turned the blame on President Donald Trump. (RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez Says ‘No Question’ Trump’s A Racist)
We can’t forget about the person dividing us and who is injecting this into the country. We haven’t seen it be this bad in recent time until the president has really made this a race issue whether it’s about African-Americans, certainly he’s doing it all over the board with immigrants, but we need to have this conversation.
Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, interrupted then, bringing the conversation to a dead stop.
“Jake, I cannot. I just can’t. 1984, 1980, Gucci just a few days ago,” she shook her head. “This is not about president Donald Trump. This is about racism in the United States of America. Congresswoman, I hear you, but on this, we’re not blaming President Trump.”
Barragán tried to bring it back around to Trump, but Turner kept going.
“I’m not going to continue to let politicians use this man as the excuse to deal with racism in this country, she stated. “It’s been going on for far too long in the United States of America. We need some real truth and reconciliation.”
Turner went on to concede that, while she certainly believes that the president “is a racist,” it’s a cop-out to suggest that somehow he or his party are the only ones with the problem.
“But as we’ve seen, Democrats delve in racism as well. We’ve got to stop making this about who is a Republican, who is a Democrat. I want to know who is a humanitarian? Who going to stand up for people’s lives, starting with black people’s lives. Everyone’s life is taken care of.”
She concluded by repeating her initial point — that the situation in Virginia bore no connection to the White House.
“So no more about this — these three men,” she said. “It had nothing to do with President Trump. What Lieutenant Governor Fairfax is going through don’t have nothing to do with President Trump. Northam wearing blackface don’t have nothing to do with Donald Trump. Herring, he has nothing to do with Donald Trump.”