Susan Rice: Trump Administration ‘Has Been Racist to Its Core for the Last Three-and-a-Half Years’

Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice commented on Mary Elizabeth Taylor resigning as assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs because of President Donald Trump’s response to racial tensions in the country.

Mitchell said, “I want to ask you about this resignation. Unlike John Bolton, for instance, resigning, and making a lot of money, or Jim Mattis resigning and not explaining until later exactly why he was resigning, this was direct, it was personal, it names President Trump, it was specific.”

Rice said, “Well, I guess, Andrea, I would say better late than never. You know, to serve an administration which has been racist to its core for the last three-and-a-half years, from comparing the peaceful protesters at Charlottesville to white supremacists, call white supremacists very fine people, all the way through to the recent weeks where the administration has disparaged the Black Lives Matter movement, disparaged peaceful protesters, and made plain they prefer to stand by a Confederate legacy than a modern America, it’s been an administration whose record on race is just disgraceful. So while I respect the fact that belatedly this assistant secretary, Ms. Taylor, has recognized how unconscionable that is and decided she can no longer serve, what we’ve seen in recent days is not that different, frankly, than what we’ve seen over the course of the last three-and-a-half years.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN