CNN’s Brian Stelter declared on air Monday that President Donald Trump’s comment to a reporter about China was “racist,” adding that Trump doesn’t have the “benefit of the doubt” on this charge of racism.
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“I think what we saw in that exchange with Weijia Jiang is something that has racial overtones,” Stelter said.
“It is racist to look at an Asian-American White House correspondent and say, ‘ask China.’ This isn’t happening in a vacuum. This is part of a pattern of behavior from the president that goes back many years,” he added.
“So, he doesn’t have the benefit of the doubt that someone might have if for the first time ever in their life they made a comment like that to a reporter,” Stelter continued.
This is in reference to an incident Monday when CBS reporter Weijia Jiang asked Trump about testing, and he replied in part by telling her to “ask China.”
“Well, they’re losing their lives everywhere in world. And maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me, ask China that question, okay?” Trump said to her. “When you ask them that question, you may get a very unusual answer.”
Stelter also claimed that Trump has a “pattern of reacting to minority journalists in a very specific and different way,” citing an incident when Trump asked April Ryan if members of the Congressional Black Caucus were her “friends.”
“Now, of course he says … he would have said the same thing to anyone. But the pattern suggests otherwise. The pattern suggests a racial reaction to certain individuals in the press corps. And that’s deeply, deeply disturbing,” the CNN personality also said of Trump’s comment to Jiang. (RELATED: Tucker Calls Out CNN’s Brian Stelter For Unhinged Melania Coverage)