Trump Campaign Advisor Plays Down Trump’s Racist Attacks on the Squad, Wants Trump to Argue ‘Ideas’

Trump 2020 campaign advisor David Urban tried hard to deflect attention away from the president’s racist tweets against four Democratic congresswomen of color on Monday afternoon’s edition of CNN’s The Lead.

Urban seemed particularly miffed at any characterization of Trump as a racist, visibly shaking his head and mumbling as Democratic strategist Maria Cardona went all in on that point. Cardona called out the president for remarks he made earlier in the day saying that the four women need to be “handled” by the leaders of the House Democratic caucus.

Cardona was not having it:

“They are elected members of Congress. They deserve respect. What I think really drives this president crazy is that they are young, and that they are women of color, and that they are doing things that really take him off of his message. And they are also exposing what many of us have already known — that he is a racist, that he has taken a playbook out of the handbook of white supremacists, telling them to send her back and then using that at his rallies.”

Urban responded that he would advise the president “to tweet on substance,” which makes one wonder what president Urban has been observing for the last two and a half years. He went on to suggest fighting on “ideas,” which, again, is not Donald Trump’s style.

Urban also told Cardona that not everyone who disagrees with a conservative idea is a racist, which was not her original argument. Brianna Keilar, sitting in for Jake Tapper, noted that Trump’s tweets were indeed racist.

Urban responded:

“Listen, again, I would argue, bad tweet. Come out and argue ideas.”

Urban knows that his fellow panelists are talking about Donald Trump, right? Arguing ideas is not how he got to the presidency. It’s as if Urban is advising some wholly other candidate.

Watch the video above, via CNN.