Jay Carney to GOP: Your Party Is Racist — and ‘You Know It’

Former Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, now a political commentator for CNN, casually admitted that, yes, his party uses race to convince minorities that Republicans seek to oppress them.

Before the midterm election, Carney said: “Republicans are going to pick up seats in the Senate and the House, and they may win control of the Senate. So (Democrats) need to mobilize their base voters, and that is especially true of minority voters.”

Carney also admitted that the use of the race card is cynical: “Equating support for stand-your-ground law … doesn’t mean you supported the action that took Trayvon Martin’s life. So that’s the kind of, you know, rough ad — similar to the one we saw from the Republican. I think we’ve come to expect that, and hopefully a lot of voters … kind of tune it out.”

Carney claims both sides use race to gin up their base. But when Republicans do it, he insists, they do so out of racism. Consider this exchange with Bill Kristol, the conservative publisher of the Weekly Standard. Carney claims that the Republicans’ push for voter ID is motivated by the racist Republican desire to suppress the black vote:

Kristol: I voted in Virginia last Saturday. Since I was going to be in New York next week, I voted early absentee in person, and I had to show my driver’s license. Do you think that’s really a problem?

Carney: You know what the statistics say. You know who is most affected by the requirements, essentially poll tax-type requirements.

Kristol: Poll tax? Showing an identification is like charging people a fine, a tax?

Carney: Bill, you know that the fraud isn’t substantial and real. You know it doesn’t have a significant impact, because it’s so minimal, on election results and you know what the motivation is behind it. You know it.

Kristol: I just totally disagree. But that’s OK.

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