The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Trump’s tweets: Racist or not racist?
Many Conn. GOP supporters defend president’s immigration policies, public comments
The day Tom Imperati’s son came home from Fordham University railing against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and racist public comments, Imperati asked him a question.
“Which half of you is black?” he asked his son, whose mother is, in fact, black. “Is it the half of you that grew up in a big house with everything you could ever want? Is that the half of you that’s black? Is that the half of you he doesn’t represent? Don’t disrespect the president.”
Imperati recalled the story this week in his store, the Hunter’s Shop, in Branford. Standing behind a counter, surrounded by guns and Nazi memorabilia
with a bust of George Washington over his right shoulder, he defended the president again over racist comments he made about four Democratic congresswomen.
Trump tweeted last Sunday that four minority congresswomen should “go back … (to) the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” prompting outrage on one side and emboldening his supporters.
“How is what he said racist? He didn’t say ‘Go back to Africa you (expletive) (expletive).’ He said, ‘If you don’t like it here, you can leave.’ How is that (expletive) racist?” Imperati said, his voice rising.
And Imperati isn’t alone. More than a dozen Republicans interviewed for this story doubled down on defending the president. Not one agreed the president’s comments were racist or inappropriate or out of the line for the president of the United States, who is tasked with representing and defending a nation founded by and grown by immigrants. All of those who defended the president quoted false information dispersed by the president, and lashed out at the “liberal media,” blaming the backlash on reporters who’ve covered the story.
Asked if his son had ever experienced racism or been on the receiving end of comments like those made by the president, Imperati paused for a second to think.
“Not that he’s ever told me,” Imperati said. “So no.”
Martin Tagliaferro, is a Norwalk resident who voted for Trump in 2016 and has loyally defended the president ever since — even though, he concedes, Trump was not his first choice.
“I have never seen such an organized attempt to undermine or overthrow an elected official as has been going on in this case,” Tagliaferro said. “I think it’s incredibly disturbing and I give him a ton of credit for being able to accomplish as much. It’s a total fake outrage, which almost everything directed at him is an outrage. (U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, DMinn.), is not an Americanborn citizen. She was born in Somalia. She was able to benefit from an incredibly corrupt system. She seems totally unappreciative of where she ended up.”
Tagliaferro said he feels like he finally has a president who represents him and fights for what he believes is right.
“We finally have a person who fights,” Tagliaferro said. “Is he perfect? God no. Does he make an ass out of himself ? Absolutely. But he fights. He fights for us because I can’t. I have to put up with this stuff at work. I know a lot of people who are scared to death who say they are scared to death.”
Fritz Blau, chairman of the Stamford Republican Party, said he saw nothing wrong with the president’s comments, and he does not believe the president condoned the chants of “send her back” that broke out at a rally Wednesday in North Carolina.
“I don’t think he said anything wrong and I think it’s being purposely twisted and manipulated by the savage media and the Democrats,” Blau said. Blau added that he believes even though president used the plural “congresswomen” and “them” in his tweets, Trump was only referring to Omar, who immigrated to the U.S. from Somalia and became a U.S. citizen when she was 17.
“He’s obviously not telling the other three to go back to another country,” Blau said. “He’s specifically talking about Omar even though he may have used a plural ... She’s Muslim. I’m very concerned about Sharia law. If you were to ask a Muslim scholar I’m positive they would say Sharia law is the ultimate law and nothing is subservient to it.”
Blau said he often hears people say that if they don’t like Stamford or if Stamford is too expensive, they should leave. Asked if he thinks it’s OK to say such things to people, whether it’s about race or taxes, he cited a children’s rhyme.
“Yes, I think you can absolutely say things like that. You can’t force people to leave. You can’t pick them up and grab them and move them. But you can absolutely tell them to leave if they don’t like it,” Blau said. “I remember being a kid, ‘Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’ What happened to that? Now words will have a lethal impact, which is beyond me.”