A group launched by longtime Donald Trump aide Stephen Miller has been quietly running radio ads warning white voters that the Biden administration is pursuing a host of policies designed to hurt them because of their race.
A recording of the ad, obtained by POLITICO, represents one of the most openly race-based spots of the cycle, amplifying tropes that have historically been used to generate backlash to minority groups.
The spot ends with the disclosure that it is paid for by America First Legal, the organization that was founded by Miller after the Trump administration ended, along with former Trump administration officials like Mark Meadows, Matt Whitaker, and Russ Vought.
The claim that Harris said non-white citizens should be prioritized for disaster relief has been mischaracterized, according to fact checks. Another fact check found the comment from Biden about Covid relief ignored the entirety of his statement, as he was referring to how minority-owned businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the economic crisis.
Earlier this year, America First Legal filed a lawsuit in the state of New York against a Department of Health guideline for Covid-19 treatment that stated “Non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor, as longstanding systemic health and social inequities have contributed to an increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19.” They also filed FOIA lawsuits requesting federal agency plans to comply with a Biden order to advance racial justice.
But in the context of politics, the line between tacit and explicit support for diversity erodes. The right’s backlash against this vague thing called “woke” is largely a function of treating individual calls for respecting minority voices as somehow being a systemic call to do so. It is the idea that there is a hierarchy of power that exerts itself outside of the law and forces compliance through shaming and compliance. So some professor at San Diego State who puts “she/her” in her Twitter bio becomes part of the vanguard of organized oppression against real America. This idea that Whites are disadvantaged is cultural and generational and amplified repeatedly in an increasingly unconstrained right-wing media. Miller’s unsubtle intertwining of hostility to immigration and race manifests in this ad that specifically asserts that White America is on the decline. The appeals used to be coded, quiet. Present and identifiable, but shying away from specific “they’re coming for you” language. The coding is gone. The elevation of racial fear is explicit. The Southern strategy is gone; the Jim Crow appeals to Blacks usurping power are back.j
The Washington Post
Politico and Politico Audio and WaPo