The Atlantic's contributing writer Jemele Hill on Tuesday said President Trump going after NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace and citing the league's decision to ban the Confederate flag is evidence of him trying to stoke a "race war" between African Americans and white Americans.
Trump tweeted on Monday about the alleged hate crime directed at Wallace, where NASCAR said someone had discovered a "noose." After an investigation by the FBI, it was determined the rope had been there for over a year and was used to pull-down the garage door. Trump further claimed NASCAR banning the Confederate flag has lead to low ratings.
Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2020
Hill told MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell that Trump is using cultural flashpoints to distract from the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus pandemic in the United States because he is "insecure" about his chances of being reelected.
"He rather shift the tension to what has worked for him so well in the last three or four years, which is provoking division, stoking culture wars, stoking a race war, essentially in order to deflect from the fact he is incompetent and has failed as a leader," Hill said.
"So I wasn't necessarily surprised, although continue to be disappointed because I'm an American, I live in this country. I want a healthy, safe country that is capable of unifying and he's made this impossible by continuing to spew language that does nothing but put people on opposite sides," she added.
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