Wolf Blitzer: "They are so black", plus Elijah Cummings
Tags: cnn, wolf blitzer, charges of racism, elijah cummingsFrom Sep. 1's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer:
"You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals, as Jack Cafferty just pointed out, so tragically, so many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold."
Here's one of those questions from Sep. 2:
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday afternoon repeatedly prodded reluctant Congressional Black Caucus member Elijiah Cummings to blame racism for delays in rescuing hurricane victims in New Orleans. Blitzer asked Cummings on The Situation Room: "Do you believe, if it was, in fact, a slow response, as many now believe it was, was it in part the result of racism?" When Cummings demurred from such a blanket accusation, Blitzer wouldn’t give up: "There are some critics who are saying, and I don't know if you're among those, but people have said to me, had this happened in a predominantly white community, the federal government would have responded much more quickly. Do you believe that?"
Cummings reply:
"I think that that's a pretty good probability. The fact is, though, and keep in mind another thing, Wolf, we have not even seen emerge from all of this those people who have passed away. There's another wave coming over this thing. Number one, we have to bring relief. Number two, we have to reconstruct and reconstruct people's lives…."
