Tara Setmayer Rails Against ‘Podunk Racism’: ‘This is 2019, People’

CNN political contributor Tara Setmayer railed against what she dubbed “podunk racism” on Friday.

Setmayer’s comments came during a conversation on CNN about a Louisiana police chief who — just two years after making headlines for a racist Facebook post — was elected police chief.

Back in 2017, Wayne Welsh posted a meme on Facebook showing a 50’s style illustration of a white woman drowning a girl in the tub.

The caption read: “WHEN YOUR DAUGHTERS FIRST CRUSH IS A LITTLE NEGRO BOY.”

Welsh’s meme made national news and the headlines at the time suggested he was forced out or resigned from his post as assistant police chief in the small town of Estherwood.

Now, two years later he has a new job as police chief (as it turns out he never actually resigned) and insists he’s not racist.

Further, as Setmayer noted, in the piece showed by CNN, it seemed people in the tiny town of 900 “seem to think there’s nothing wrong with this.”

“That scares the hell out of me. I’m from New Jersey, okay, I’m from 15 minutes outside of New York City. I don’t understand this level of podunk racism,” Setmayer said. “But the fact that it still exists in numbers larger than I really ever wanted to ever admit to scares the hell out of me. And the fact that this guy really wasn’t held accountable for it at all goes to show you that we have a long way to go.”

She then turned her talk to President Donald Trump.

“This is what happens when the president of the United States uses coded language and doesn’t flat out deny things or kind of tip-toes around racial animus…It gives a license to the bigots and the racists who are still around clearly…what, nobody is offended, even the president of the United States is kind of bigoted,” she continued on. “So we must be alright, too. This is 2019, people, my God.”

Fellow panelist and progressive commentator Keith Boykin, however, pushed back on her remarks.

“I hate to say something that sounds like it might be defending Donald Trump, but what I really wanted to say is these people probably thought this way long before Donald Trump came along. He didn’t invent racism, he just exploited it,” Boykin said. “But the other point I want to push back a little bit on, you mentioned you’re from New Jersey. There is racism taking place in New Jersey, too. Not just Louisiana.”

Watch above, via CNN

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