CNN political analyst April Ryan criticized President Trump's executive order on law enforcement reform because it did not refer to systemic racism within police departments. It was initially reported the order was going to mention institutional racism, but that was not the case.
"It doesn’t mention or use the words racism or bias. How do you fix a problem when you won’t call it by its name?" CNN host Don Lemon asked.
“Because you don’t want to fix the problem...When the president said don’t be too nice when you put them in the car, as you don’t want to hit their heads, that was sending a signal early on in this administration. And you know, Don, thousands, maybe even millions of people marched across this land for 20-plus days looking for justice. People, black, white, Jew, gentile, protestant and Catholic, looking for justice, equity, as well as stopping the police brutality, the fatal police brutality," Ryan said.
"Why is this administration incapable of admitting systemic racism is a real problem in this country?" Lemon followed up.
"Why I think incapable? Maybe because the president does not see racism because he does not necessarily like the grounding of America," she replied. "We have seen this president say over and over again that he doesn’t like certain issues, he doesn’t like — well, he was talking about, what was it, s-hole nations. He has talked about both sides in Charlottesville. This president has not been the friend that he claims to be to black America if you look at the stats, if you dig in the weeds."
"Black people are out here asking for you to save their lives and he’s not, he’s turning a blind eye. But when it comes to people like Stephen Miller and white nationalists this president is more open to listening to them than he is to a community that still suffers from the highest numbers of negatives and almost every category in 2020," Ryan added.