Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said on Monday that she has not ruled out running for president in 2020 against President Donald Trump, who she declared is “racist,” “xenophobic,” and “homophobic.”
Hours after telling a South by Southwest audience in Texas that she had figured that “2028 would be the earliest” she “would be ready to stand for president” based on a spreadsheet she put together while she was in college of what she would have to accomplish to “be effective in that job,” Abrams tweeted that though she never thought she would be ready to run for president before 2020, “Now 2020 is definitely on the table.”
In #LeadFromTheOutside, I explore how to be intentional about plans, but flexible enough to adapt. 20 years ago, I never thought I’d be ready to run for POTUS before 2028. But life comes at you fast – as I shared in Q&A w @Yamiche at @sxsw. Now 2020 is definitely on the table…
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) March 11, 2019
Abrams told PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor at South by Southwest that Democrats must double down on race and identity politics in 2020 while slamming Trump as a “racist” who has “disdain for anything that he considers different than the norm.”
“It’s disingenuous for us to pretend that race isn’t embedded in the way we construct our politics as a nation,” Abrams reportedly said while reportedly talking about the KKK, slavery, and white nationalism. She reportedly added that in the current political environment, those “whose identities have been sublimated for the last 400 years finally have enough amassed power to do something about it.”
When asked if she thinks Trump is a racist, Abrams replied: “Yes.”
“I think he’s racist. I think he’s xenophobic. I think he’s homophobic,” Abrams continued. “I think he has disdain for anything that he considers different than the norm.”
Abrams, who delivered her party’s response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, also said she is “still angry,” “very bitter,” and “sad” about her gubernatorial loss.
In an interview with the New York Times last week, Abrams, whom Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has reportedly been recruiting to run for Senate in 2020, said she is considering running for president and will not dismiss her potential 2020 presidential candidacy “out of hand the way others do.”
“I need women of color, particularly Black women, to understand that our achievements should not be diminished,” Abrams reportedly told the Times. “I’m not saying I would be the best candidate, but I’m not going to dismiss it out of hand the way others do.”
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