Trump Insults Black Reporter in another Slur against CNN Staff (+Video)

When Abby Phillip, a CNN correspondent on Friday asked whether Trump wanted Whitaker to rein in the special counsel’s ongoing Russia investigation, he snapped.

“What a stupid question that is,” Trump replied to Phillip, who is black. “What a stupid question,” he repeated, pointing his finger at her. “But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.”

The attack prompted an outpouring of support from fellow journalists, Democrats and others for Phillip, who previously covered the White House for The Washington Post. Many praised her for asking the most important and pertinent question of the day.

Over the past several days, Trump has launched personal attacks against a trio of black female journalists. He accused one of asking “a lot of stupid questions.”

He demanded another “sit down” at a news conference and followed up later by calling her a “loser.” He lambasted a third for asking, in his view, a “racist question.”

Trump verbal assaults against black reporters, candidates and lawmakers has renewed criticism that the president employs insults rooted in racist tropes aimed at making his African American targets appear unintelligent, untrustworthy and unqualified.

Earlier on Wednesday Donald Trump has had a hostile exchange with a reporter from CNN over questions of his stance on immigration and the Russia investigation.

The US president has described Robert Mueller's investigation as "a hoax" before lambasting the reporter. He said CNN is "fake news" and is the "enemy of people".

Trump has similarly called CNN’s Don Lemon the “dumbest man on television” and, after Lemon interviewed basketball star LeBron James, said in a tweet that the television anchor, who is black, “made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.” James had been critical of Trump, calling him a “bum” after the president revoked an invitation for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors to visit the White House amid reports that the team didn’t want to attend.

Trump also has called Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) “wacky” and disparaged his former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman as a “dog” after she wrote a tell-all book that accused him of using racist language.

“There is a pattern,” said April Ryan, who has covered the White House for America Urban Radio Networks since President Bill Clinton’s second term and now is also a CNN political analyst.

Eddie Glaude Jr., chairman of the African American studies department at Princeton University, said Trump’s language was not a dog whistle because “it is not subtle.” He compared Trump’s attacks on the intelligence of black public figures to “The Bell Curve,” a widely disparaged 1994 book that connected intelligence to race.

“He does it over and over again,” Glaude said. “It’s important for us not just to reduce it to Trump just being transactional and understand this as a central part of who he is.”