year. I think deep down he is a segregationist like Gingrich who was in segregated schools his entire life.

Ask him if Muhammad Ali is an American. He wouldn’t deny Kentucky’s native son.

My sister-in-law once told me she didn’t watch tennis, because there were never any Americans playing. I set her straight right quick about where Venus and Serena were from.

She ruled women's tennis up until the Williams sisters.

On the men's side there's been Conners, McEnroe, Agassi, and Sampras just to name a few.

I've always been able to choose a favorite, even if an American isn't playing.

I’ll watch anyone play tennis.

will only admit behind closed doors. They don’t believe Black people should vote. And brown people and women. They will strip all of us who aren’t white men of the vote if we can’t find a way to stop them.

It would've been okay if he'd said 'other Americans' or 'Americans on the whole' or similar, right? Not saying 'accurate' but not 'offensive'.

But his just saying 'Americans' could be interpreted as 'Americans generally' ... without much of a logical stretch.

I think he IS a racist, but there's an easy 'out' for him if called on to explain it, and it's not unreasonable is all I'm really saying.

Walked 20 miles to join the Army - because his mother put the keys to all of the vehicles under her pillow.

This was after graduating two years early from a segregated high school in Alabama, and completing 2 bachelors degrees at Tuskegee in 3 years.

He became one of the first Green Berets - hand picked because he sent RFK a letter from a Navy ship at the end of his service (Purple Heart recipient, Broken Arm, Army Captain) that he was being held against his will and his commitment to the military had ended two days prior. Also, if he could get this letter to him, the Navy and Army could find a way to get him off the ship and back home.

That's called chutzpah in some circles . . . in RFK's mind - an AMERICAN man with brains and brass.

He also happened to be black.

Mitch McConnell didn't whistle - he welped and loudly.

Dog done welped, dog done did it. He's my late father's contemporary and it was DELIBERATE.

And Tim Scott is an Uncle Tom. And I hope that's offensive.

I see two wimps who didn't have the brass to serve their country HONORABLY. McConnell's "medical discharge" was bullshit.

You must be rightly proud

But ... what Mitch said is definitely offensive ... if you choose to view it that way. If you are inclined, so to speak.

However that's not the only interpretation, and the idea that by 'Americans' he meant 'Americans as a whole', i.e. including the subset of AA's ... is at least plausible.

If called upon to explain, that's what he'll say, and it'd be difficult to rhetorically prove he meant it ... the way we believe he meant it.

As such, I'd say his quip qualifies quite perfectly as dog-whistling, myself, because that's really the definition of the term ... as in 'we know how he really meant it, but a non-racist interpretation is still possible'.

I remember a movie called "Django" and the character played by Samuel Jackson. The GQP AA's remind me of him.

And a traitor

It can be used as a battle cry.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

"If you were offended, I apologize, But you people are trying to make it seem as if I am a racist and I am not. I cannot be responsible for you people's hurt feelings."