Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court decision to end racial gerrymandering, the Left and their media allies have been crying racism, and that continued last Saturday, at a rally in Montgomery, Alabama. It all led to a sometimes heated discussion on race, Monday on Fox News's The Five.
The segment began with short clips from Democrats who participated in the event, including Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson, who said, "We are here because a white supremacist dictator known as President Donald Trump thought he could silence us."
The first to weigh in was former Tennessee Democrat congressman Harold Ford Jr., who downplayed the racial issue, claiming, "My difficulty and difference with all of this is we're doing this redistricting during mid-decades." But Ford would go on to sneak race into the issue.
FORD: The Court has said that race cannot be a predominant factor, the only factor in doing it. I do think we would be having a different conversation if the Supreme Court said that you couldn't draw districts with a big number of non-college-educated white men.... We'd probably be saying something differently about it.
Ford is implying that these white men are Trump voters. Is the we his Fox News panel and other white people? He then returned to downplaying the race issue.
FORD: I caution my Democrat friends to leave the race out of it. We have a lot of progress in this country on the racial front. We have a long way to go as well. But when you have a black president in the last 20 years, you have black members of Congress who are Democrat and Republican representing predominately white districts, and you have black Senators representing predominately white states, to me that flies in the face of some of the things we heard in our opening.
When it was Greg Gutfeld's turn, there was no doubt about where he stood on the issue of race.
GUTFELD: Those leaders are living in the past, which is what the race card literally is. You're living in the past to imprint it on the future. The things that they say are happening aren't happening. It used to work. We used to be paralyzed by the fear of the scarlet letter R for racism. But the race card doesn't work anymore on half the population that sees through it. The other half are just doing it out of habit.
Gutfeld then addressed Ford.
GUTFELD: Now all of a sudden race relations are worse (than when Obama was first elected) and people are at each other's throats... This is a filter, Harold. I'm talking about identity politics. It's a filter put in place to destroy a country because it's absolutely opposite what a melting pot is.
And Ford's seesawing continued, back to racism.
FORD: We have a history in our country where we had slavery a long long time.
GUTFELD: And we ended it, Harold. We fought a war to end it. Aren't we the only country to ever fight a war to end slavery? We didn't start slavery. Where did slavery start? It's an ugly fact. It's not from us.
FORD: Greg, we had laws in our books that didn't allow black people to vote.
GUTFELD: I understand that. This is 2026.
Ford then retreated.
FORD: Would you that agree with me that you shouldn't redraw congressional lines mid-decade? That's what the President is doing.
GUTFELD: I don't care. I look at these districts and I see all of these Republicans and no representation. That's wrong.
After Kennedy added her take, which included ripping Democrats for playing the race card on redistricting, Ford took one more shot.
FORD: A radio host told a Republican woman who is in Congress that he's against Hakeem Jeffries coming down to Virginia, and trying to dictate what to do.... Then he said at the end, tell him to keep his cotton picking hands off Virginia. That was race. He should not have said that. I don't disagree with a lot of things you guys said about identity politics, but when race is obvious, it needs to be called out. In this incidence Greg I would agree with you, race is not obvious in what they're talking about but we should not be redrawing districts mid-decade.
It seems that Ford wanted to have it both ways. Say it's not about race, but keep bringing up race, all the while finishing with his safety valve of say no to mid-decade redistricting.
