CNN political analyst Kristen Powers declared on Friday that supporters of President Donald Trump are “all racists” because they did not vote for twice-failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
A CNN panel hosted by Don Lemon was discussing the topic of why 52 percent of white women voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, while Clinton only received 43 percent of the vote.
Powers insisted that being a Trump supporter means being a “racist” just because they voted in ways that will ultimately harm disadvantaged groups.
“I think one of the first things is that people will say that, uh, they support him for reasons other than his racist language … and they’ll say, ‘Well, I’m not racist. I just voted for him because, you know, I didn’t like Hillary Clinton. And I just want to say that that’s not–that doesn’t make you not racist. It actually makes you racist,” Powers asserted.
“If you support somebody that’s racist, that makes you racist,” she repeated. “So, I just want to establish that.”
Powers claimed that Americans also need to recognize that not only are white women racist, but white men are as well.
“As for why white women do it, I think we have to recognize that white men are doing it as well, but I think sometimes we would hope that we would get better behavior from white women, because white women are themselves oppressed and that they would, therefore, be able to be aligned themselves with other oppressed people,” Powers continued.
Powers went on to explain that white women may also be suppressed, and may be forced to vote the same way as their male counterparts.
“We have to remember that the white patriarchal system actually benefits white women in a lot of ways and they’re attached to white men who are benefiting from the system that was was created by them, for them,” Powers claimed.
Fellow CNN commentator Alice Stewart denounced Powers’ statements, saying, “I’m a Republican. I support this president. I voted for this president,”
“I did so because of his policies. I do not agree with his tone and tenor … Kirsten is a dear friend of mine, but I resent the fact she says I’m racist because Donald Trump says racist things. I support this president because of his policies and the things that he says that are disparaging and disgusting, which I’ve said many times, those don’t represent me.”
Powers fired back, “you don’t have to support him,” and asserted that she would not stand behind any Democrat who said or did racist things.
Watch the clip for yourself below —
CNN's Kirsten Powers on women who voted for Trump: "They'll say, 'Well, I'm not racist. I just voted for him because I didn't like Hillary Clinton.' And I just want to say that's not — that doesn't make you not racist. It actually makes you racist." pic.twitter.com/P4Hy3KJeHY
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 18, 2018
–Kylie Handler is a news editor for The Horn News