Our Shithole President - And How Pennyslvania's Senators Have Reacted

Yesterday, I said I'd follow up on how Pennsylvania's politicians are either defending Trump's racism or condemning it.

We'll start with The Senate and perhaps follow-up with the House tomorrow.

Senator Bob Casey has tweeted three times on Trump's "shithole countries" remark.  First there was this:

America is better than this and our president should be too. https://t.co/RIhRpMd7If

— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) January 11, 2018

Which, while I completely agree it, seems a bit incomplete.  The next morning, he tweeted:

The President’s remarks were wrong, hateful and divisive. Unfortunately, this kind of poisonous rhetoric is part of a pattern from President Trump that dates back decades, occurred during the campaign and continues to this day.

— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) January 12, 2018

And continuing:

There is no place in our nation for attacks on large groups of people based on their race, religion or country of origin, especially from the President of the United States. America is better than this and President Trump should be too.

— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) January 12, 2018

Good, as it fills out Casey's previous, and rather short, tweet. It also presents the case that this is not an outlier for Trump. He's been this vile for a long long while. Casey is unambiguous in his condemnation of Trump's racist rhetoric.

Senator Pat Toomey, on the other hand treats Trump's words a bit more, shall we say, gingerly.  His tweets:

I hope the President retracts the suggestion, attributed to him yesterday, that America should not want immigrants from countries which he was accused of describing disparagingly.

— Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) January 12, 2018

And then continuing:

There are great people—many of whom would make great Americans—in every country on the face of the earth. The criterion for immigration should be the character of the individual, not the circumstances, however dire, of their native land.

— Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) January 12, 2018

Attributed? Suggestion? Let's take a look, again, at what he's quoted as saying. From the Washington Post:

President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to several people briefed on the meeting.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to these people, referring to countries mentioned by the lawmakers.

Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. The president, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt that they help the United States economically.

It's sad to see Pat Toomey avoiding much of the bigotry of Trump's "suggestion" and it's also sad to see him hide behind the word "attributed" rather than the stronger "quoted" regarding the phrase "shithole countries."  It shades towards Pat accepting (or at least floating) the possibility that Trump didn't say it. It let's the shithole president off the hook just a bit.

And while it's true that Trump has denied saying it but can we really believe a guy who's made two thousand false or misleading claims in only the first year of his presidency?

Additionally Pat avoided the other side of Trump's bigotry - while he criticizes Trump's "suggestion" that the US shouldn't want people from certain countries, Pat fails to mention who Trump does want instead: Norwegians (and later, those good-for-the-economy Asians).

People from Africa, Central America and a certain all-black Caribbean nation = They're bad! Keep em out!
People from Northern Europe (who are mostly white) and those useful Asians = They're good! Let 'em in! 

Ya missed half of Trump's racism, Pat.

It's clear which side Case is on. Pat Toomey, not so much.