Politics - News Analysis

Trump Advisor Katrina Pierson Screams: Abraham Lincoln Didn’t Have Any Black West Wing Staffers Either!!

Senior advisor for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign Katrina Pierson rejected criticism about a lack of black staffers in the West Wing by asking critics how many African-Americans Abraham Lincoln had in his administration.

Pierson, who previously acted as Trump’s 2016 national campaign spokesperson, went back-and-forth with MSNBC host Al Sharpton Saturday, offering a bizarre excuse for a lack of black staffers in top administration positions.

Sharpton attempted to get Pierson and Media Matters for America founder David Brock to name a single black staffer, but Pierson pushed back, saying any attempt to paint the president as a racist is “ridiculous” and she instead demanded a discussion on slavery reparations.

The Trump campaign advisor later derailed the conversation by comparing the lack of black people in Lincoln’s 1860s West Wing.

The West Wing offices in their modern form contain the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, Situation Room and Roosevelt Room and were technically not created until the Theodore Roosevelt administration at the beginning of the 20th century.

“Historically, Republicans and Democrats have had major figures of the black community in the West Wing as part of their senior staff and administration,” MSNBC host Sharpton said during the “The Race Within the Race” segment Saturday. “Who are the blacks in the West Wing under President Trump?”

“You mean those who took the job or those who were offered? Because those are two entirely different questions,” Pierson responded, sparking a shouting match between herself and Sharpton.

Pierson, unable to name one black staffer in Trump’s West Wing, claimed she had been offered Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ press secretary role but turned it down.

“Everything has to be made about race, reverend… I’m not going to participate if you’re going to continue to paint this president as racist. Let’s talk about reparations, can we talk about reparations?” Pierson replied.

Sharpton turned to ask Brock how Trump can “ask for black votes” without hiring a single black person, but Pierson interjected, “there’s plenty of black people in the West Wing.”

“Well, I asked you to name them, and you started telling me, you turned down,” answered Sharpton.

Responded Pierson, “Because I’m not going to participate in the attempt to make this all about race. It is ridiculous. How many black people were in Abraham Lincoln’s West Wing?”

She added, “Is Abraham Lincoln a racist because he didn’t have a black person in his White House? This is insane. This is an insane discussion.”

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