EXCLUSIVE: Civil Rights Icon Andrew Young, Jr.: “I feel uncomfortable condemning the Klan types … They are the forgotten Americans”
ALSO: Young: Trump “made a mistake in thinking that living was easy”
PLUS: New NBC News/Marist polls show Trump’s job rating is below 40 percent in three key states
AUGUST 19, 2017 — In an exclusive interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) told moderator Chuck Todd that if members of Congress are “silent, intentionally or unintentionally, they wear the cap saying, “We agree with that.””
“Over the last seven months, there’s been ample opportunity to disagree with the president on many issues,” Watts said. “This is not a time for us to be afraid of being tweeted. You know, this is not a time for us to suppress our convictions.”
He added: “I’m quite disappointed, Chuck, that we didn’t have more on the faith council to resign, or at least speak out.” Watch the full interview.
Civil rights icon Andrew Young, also a former United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor, exclusively shared his insights on this “week of misunderstandings”: “We originally sought to redeem the soul of America from the triple evils of race, war and poverty. Most of the issues that we’re dealing with now are related to poverty. But we still want to put everything in a racial context. The reason I feel uncomfortable condemning the Klan types is – they are almost the poorest of the poor. They are the forgotten Americans.”
Young said that President Trump is “still politicking and thinking nationally, as a nationalist” and that he “made a mistake in thinking that living was easy and it just is not.” Watch the full interview.
New NBC News/Marist poll numbers from the key Trump states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin debuted on the broadcast, revealing the president’s job rating is below 40 percent in all three states.
Todd also moderated a discussion between Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” on how to respond to white supremacists when they take to the streets.
Former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes, The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan, also a new NBC News and MSNBC political contributor, and The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson discussed the president’s reaction to Charlottesville. Julius Krein, who wrote the viral column “I Voted for Trump. And I Sorely Regret It.” for The New York Times this week, also joined the roundtable.
Read the full transcript of this morning’s “Meet the Press” on MeetThePress.com, and check out a renewed look at NBC News’ 1966 documentary on political extremism, “Politics: The Outer Fringe.”
For more from moderator Chuck Todd throughout the week, sign up for the “First Read” newsletter, and subscribe to the “1947: The Meet The Press Podcast” for on-demand interviews.
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