MSNBC's Johnson Sees Trump 'Terrorist State,' Cheers Abuse of Pro-Trumpers

August 21st, 2017 4:28 PM

In an article posted on Sunday at The Root, race-obsessed MSNBC contributor and The Root politics editor Jason Johnson devotes his column to rationalizing the verbal harassment aimed at two white high school girls who visited predominantly black Howard University as one wore a pro-Trump hat and the other a pro-Trump T-shirt. 

Johnson referred to the pair as "two ignorant young women" and -- even after criticizing the abusive behavior -- still ended up offering "congratulations" to Howard students for "weeding out two young women who obviously lack the intellectual acumen and social graces" to attend the school.

And, a couple days earlier, the MSNBC contributor devoted an article to describing the Trump administration as a "terrorism presidency," and tagged the President as a "terrorist sympathizer."

Yesterday's article, titled "So 2 White Women in 'Make America Great Again' Hats Walk Onto an HBCU Campus..." begins with Johnson commenting that "There are some weeks in history when you just don't want to test black folks' patience."

He then lists out the week Roots first aired on television in the 1970s, the week in 1992 when four LAPD police officers were acquitted after beating Rodney King, and then, as the third example, he claimed that President Donald Trump gave a "virtual high-five" to white nationalists: "The week white nationalists attacked the city of Charlottesville, Va., and President Donald Trump gave them a virtual high-five for it."

He then recounts:

So it stands to reason that when a pair of white high school girls from New Jersey -- who just happened to be touring Washington, D.C., and just happened to be wearing "Make America Great Again" hats and Trump shirts -- just happened to walk onto Howard University's very black campus, something was about to happen.

The article then displays a tweet by one of the girls recalling the verbal harassment they received, which also included someone stealing the hat.

Johnson analyzes the girl's story and suggests that they were deliberately trying to provoke a reaction by visiting the predominantly black campus wearing pro-Trump clothing. He then snarks: "So I'm immediately calling b.s. on these blond-haired academic ingenues' story."

Introducing several negative Twitter reactions to the girls visiting the campus, Johnson quips: "Needless to say, Howard students were not amused."

The article then displays several Twitter responses, including one which calls the high school student who tweeting about the experience a "bitch" and chastises her for visiting the campus in pro-Trump clothing.

Johnson criticizes the harassment the two girls received but then claims that the two girls engaged in worse behavior by wearing pro-Trump clothing in the first place:

It's not nice that somebody on Howard's campus took this teen's hat. It's also not nice that someone cursed at the women. But you know what's even less nice? Two ignorant young women with no home training deciding to antagonize a campus full of students less than a week after the President of the United States co-signed terrorist violence against the people of Charlottesville, Va. Then, as is the wont of their type, they attempted to make themselves social media victims instead of the provocateurs that they are.

After predicting that the two girls will end up on Fox News, he then congratulates Howard University students for "weeding" them out:

In the meantime, congratulations to the Howard student body for weeding out two young women who obviously lacked the intellectual acumen and social graces to become future Bison.

A couple of days earlier on Friday, Johnson had posted an article titled, "The President of the United States is a Terrorist Sympathizer. Now What?" in which he begins:

On Tuesday, Donald Trump's equivocation on the Charlottesville, Va., white supremacist rallies that plunged into violence and acts of terrorism forced America to accept an unmistakable, undeniable and horrifying fact: Donald Trump, President of the United States, is a terrorist sympathizer.

He adds:

You can use whatever euphemisms you'd like -- Trump is a terrorist supporter, Trump is terror-curious, Trump is terror-adjacent -- but the basic facts don't change. The President of the United States sympathizes with and will provide aid and comfort to white supremacists, and he's put together an administration to help those groups achieve goals they can't accomplish through democratic means.

He then calls the U.S. under Trump a "terrorist state" as he continues: "The only questions now are how do you live in a terrorist state, how do you resist a terrorist state and, most importantly, can you win?"

He goes on to claim that Jeff Sessions, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller "are all terrorist sympathizers, and they know it, and are blatant about it."

He goes on to recount:

The last time African Americans faced a President who openly sympathized with a terror state was almost 100 years ago with Woodrow Wilson. Wilson's two terms in office, from 1914 to 1921, were filled with internecine violence against black people by police, aided and abetted by white vigilantes and condoned by a President who threw civil rights leaders out of the White House and reversed existing anti-discrimination policies.

After advocating for the support of black organizations, he warns of terrorism against blacks in the future:

History tells us that the Trump terrorism presidency will not be short, it will not be kind, and it will not end easily. His allies in the white nationalist movement, emboldened by his tacit consent, will continue to attack and kill all across the nation, with deaths moving from speeding cars to Oklahoma City-level violence.