https://youtube.com/watch?v=7f_AiZIc2ag
New York Democratic congressman Charlie Rangel doubled down on his accusation last week that many Republicans in the South still support slavery — bewildering CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who noted that South Carolina Republicans elected a black senator on Tuesday.
Blitzer clearly wanted to give the congressman a chance to walk back remarks he made at an Andrew Cuomo campaign rally last week. But Rangel wasn’t playing ball.
“I meant that — they used to call themselves Dixiecrats,” he said. “These were slave-holding states. They’ve been frustrated with the Emancipation Proclamation. They turned over and became Republicans. Then they became tea party people. . . . They all come from the South, and they all have these feelings about superiority. And that’s true whether you’re picking cotton, or whether you’re President of the United States.”
“So you’re doubling down on those remarks,” a stunned Blitzer replied. “I want to point out to you, an African-American Republican was elected, the United States senator in South Carolina, Tim Scott.”
Rangel was unmoved, continuing to describe “a cancer that we have in the United States of America. America knows who they are. They know how they feel. And we’re talking about dealing with them.”
When Blitzer asked the congressman if he’d be willing to “name any names,” Rangel demurred. “Listen, the whole world knows who they are,” he said.