Why Sherrod Brown isn't shying away from calling Donald Trump a racist: analysis

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, is taking a more direct approach to criticizing Republican President Donald Trump on the issue of race as he contemplates running for president in 2020.

Democrats have been perfectly willing to attack Trump for a plethora of reasons, arguing his policies benefit the wealthy, criticizing him for attempting to roll back the Affordable Care Act and feeling that he’s degrading the office. But Brown is doing something a little different from the rest of the serious presidential contenders: he’s flatly calling the president a racist.

Candidates thus far have generally eschewed directly attacking Trump as a racist. They decry his policies as racist, his actions as racist or his rhetoric as racist. But they never get around to saying that about the president himself (save for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders).

Take New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker for instance. At his announcement, Booker was asked whether he thought Trump was a racist.

Read more: https://www.cleveland.com/politics/2019/02/why-sherrod-brown-isnt-shying-away-from-calling-donald-trump-a-racist-analysis.html