The New York Times offered few alternative voices against its editorializing masquerading as reporting that equated the vile, white supremacist, racist remarks by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) were the same as President Trump’s hard-hitting language that serves as an equal-opportunity defender for all Americans.

“After years of turning a blind eye to Rep. Steve King’s inflammatory statements and racist behavior, Republicans decided this week they had had enough after Mr. King asked The New York Times when phrases like white supremacy and white nationalism became offensive,” writes New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s article. “But even as they piled on their condemnation, President Trump had used Twitter to mock Sen. Elizabeth Warren for not announcing her presidential exploratory committee at Wounded Knee or Little Bighorn, sacred ground for Native Americans whose ancestors fought and died there …. Republicans are used to agonizing over how to handle the president’s offensive comments and racially tinged remarks.

Stolberg’s article fails to mention that Trump has presided over record employment among black and Latino voters, that he led the charge for new criminal justice reforms and life opportunities for prisoners and former prisoners, including many black Americans.

“‘They know on some level that their defense of Trump is morally unsupportable, and so when they get a chance to speak out against Steve King, who doesn’t have any power over them and doesn’t pose a threat to them, a lot of them are falling over themselves to condemn him,’ said Peter Wehner, who advised President George W. Bush on domestic policy. ‘But you can’t condemn Steve King and not condemn Donald Trump and pretend that you’re doing the right moral and ethical thing.’”

In King, Republicans seem happy to have found an opportunity to condemn racism without attacking the president. After taking a beating in the 2018 midterm elections — which produced a freshman Republican class that is almost entirely white and male and boosted the share of white men in the House Republican Conference to 90 percent — Republicans are also well aware that the party needs to overhaul its image.”

Yet Stolberg also fails to mention that Trump saw improvement among black and Latino voters relative to Mitt Romney in 2012 and a higher percentage of black voters than Republican John McCain in 2012.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Accuracy in Media