US Presidential Historian: Trump ‘Joined Andrew Johnson As Most Racist President In American History’

Author and presidential historian Jon Meacham said President Donald Trump has tied with President “Andrew Johnson as the most racist president in American history” after his racist attack targeting four progressive congresswomen of color this week.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Monday night, Meacham told host Chris Matthews, “What the president has done here is yet again — I think he did it after Charlottesville, and I think he did it, frankly, when he was pushing the birther lie about President Obama — he has joined Andrew Johnson as the most racist president in American history. Johnson in a state message said that African-Americans were incapable of self-government and relapsed into barbarism if they won’t closely supervised.”

Matthews asked about other politicians who have used race as a wedge issue.

Meacham said, “American politics has been defined since the Brown decision and even before, really, but particularly since May 1954, by an attempt by politicians to put poor African-Americans and brown Americans and poor white Americans pointing at each other instead of pointing up.”