During the January campaign for chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele slammed his opponent Chip Saltsman’s distribution of a CD with a song called “Barack the Magic Negro.” “It doesn’t help at all,” Steele said. “Absolutely, it reinforces a negative stereotype of the party.” However, while hosting Bill Bennett’s radio show this morning, Steele laughed when a caller called Obama the “magic negro” and seemingly agreed with the characterization:
CALLER: It’s just like the LA Time said last year or two years ago: He is the magic Negro.
STEELE: Yeah he — [laughing]. You read that too, huh? [still laughing]
CALLER: Oh yeah. I read that too. Even when things go wrong, he still manages to come out smelling like a rose.
STEELE: Well, yeah.
Listen to it:
As Steele is facing an internal power struggle, he may be trying to shore up his radical right-wing credentials. Though he earlier refused to call the president a “socialist,” this week he declared Obama was “moving towards a collectivist socialist approach to government.”
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.