Black Pastor Bill Owens: It's 'Hard to Believe' that Trump Is Racist After Meeting with Inner City Pastors
Bill Owens, the president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, made what many would call a shocking statement: he doesn’t think President Donald Trump is racist.
Owens made the remarks following a White House meeting with a group of inner city pastors.
Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs covered Owens’ reaction to the meeting on Twitter.
“I find that hard to believe” that Trump is racist, Pastor Bill Owens tells us outside WH after meeting with Trump.
Owens, 80, said he suffered from racism in his life, “so I know it when i see it.”
He learned of WH invitation last Wednesday, he says. 20 pastors in mtg. pic.twitter.com/vMfGi8KpqK
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 29, 2019
“‘I find that hard to believe’ that Trump is racist, Pastor Bill Owens tells us outside WH after meeting with Trump. Owens, 80, said he suffered from racism in his life, ‘so I know it when I see it.’ He learned of WH invitation last Wednesday, he says. 20 pastors in mtg.”
As Jacobs reported, Owens was quick to note that the meeting was previously planned, despite not being on the public schedule.
The first mention of the meeting came from Trump himself.
Looking forward to my meeting at 2:00 P.M. with wonderful Inner City Pastors!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2019
Owens looked to quell any speculation that Trump rushed to call the meeting as damage control following backlash over a recent series of derogatory tweets.
Trump’s disparaging remarks came at the expense of Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings and the district he represents, which he declared “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” and a “very dangerous and filthy place.”
….As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019
Trump’s opinion isn’t a controversial one. Democrats such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh, and even Cummings himself have criticized the district, which includes much of Baltimore. PBS even featured a left-leaning documentary about the city titled Rat Film.
HBO can produce a critically-acclaimed television show (hit series “The Wire”) about the district’s squalor, but Trump is racist for saying the same thing? The double standard has nothing to do with the statements and everything to do with the people saying them.
Many parts of many large cities have terrible living conditions. It’s not a secret, and Trump isn’t the only critic. But he is the only critic the left hates.
Unfortunately, praise from black leaders like Owens is unlikely to change the media’s perception of the president. Left-wing commentators are so set in their “Orange Man Bad” ways that they have turned into parodies of themselves.
It never stops. Trump is an evil racist, a mere mouthpiece for a racist Republican Party that controls a racist United States of America.
Accusations like that start to lose their meaning when more and more of them turn out to be baseless smears.
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