Plouffe: Newt's Trayvon Remarks 'Reprehensible,' 'Reckless'

[ProSense]

Plouffe: Newt's Trayvon Remarks 'Reprehensible,' 'Reckless'

White House senior adviser David Plouffe on Sunday tore into Newt Gingrich's response to President Obama's remarks about Trayvon Martin.

"Those comments are reprehensible," Plouffe said on ABC's This Week. "Speaker Gingrich is clearly in the last throes of his political career. And you know, you can make a decision whether to go out with some shred of dignity or say these irresponsible, reckless things, and he's clearly chosen the latter path, and that's unfortunate for the country."

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/plouffe-newts-trayvon-remarks-reprehensible-reckless

Lindsey Graham: ‘We All Know There’s A Racial Component’ To Trayvon Martin’s Death

By Amanda Peterson Beadle

After President Obama weighed in on the shooting on Trayvon Martin, the GOP presidential candidates also rushed to condemn the African-American teenager’s death. But Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were equally as quick to blame Obama for making it a racial issue after the president said, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” Gingrich called Obama’s remark “disgraceful,” and Santorum accused Obama of trying to “drive a wedge in America” by using race.

But on CNN’s State of the Union, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the attacks by his fellow Republicans are unhelpful. He told Candy Crowley that, yes, there is a racial aspect to the case, but said that doesn’t mean the president would be insensitive if it had been a white teenager:

GRAHAM: We all know there’s a racial component to this, and when the president highlights it, I don’t think it adds a whole lot. But nobody suggests that the president’s insensitive to the 17-year-old if he’d been white. I think the criticism by our guys was a little off-base.

Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/03/25/451313/lindsey-graham-trayvon-martin/?tw_p=twt

Sen. Schumer Asks DOJ To Expand Trayvon Martin Investigation

Appearing on Face the Nation Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that he was sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to expand the investigation into the killing of Trayvon Martin and launch an investigation of the "general application of these 'Stand Your Ground' laws." He wants to know "whether they actually increase, rather than decrease violence, and whether they actually prevent law enforcement from prosecuting cases where a real crime has been committed." Schumer said he hopes there will be hearings in Congress about these laws.

George Zimmerman, who admitted to shooting and killing unarmed Trayvon Martin in Florida, is using Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law to claim it was self-defense.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/sen-schumer-asks-doj-to-expand-trayvon-martin

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[Lex]

2. "Speaker Gingrich is clearly in the last throes of his political career." - Plouffe

LOL. Soundbite. Plouffe is so good at this.

[Blue_Tires]

10. OMFG someone please promote this man...

EVERYONE in the Obama administration needs to start calling out RWers in this manner...

[underpants]

3. Newt you and Atwater INVENTED driving a wedge

and the entire Republican power structure is based on using race as their main tool

Shut up Newt.

[CakeGrrl]

4. Plouffe is excellent!

That's the kind of response the GOP deserves.

[TheKentuckian]

5. Reprehensible and reckless are Gingrich SOP

[Alcibiades]

6. It's sad that the national GOP is apparently behind

the views of the senior GOP senator from South Carolina. Says a lot about where they are today.

[Major Hogwash]

7. In the dictionary under the definition for the word "disgraceful", it says "see Newt Gingrich".

I swear, it's like those 3 numbskulls they have for the GOP are in a contest to "out-racist" each other.

[ljm2002]

8. Very glad to see...

...that for once, our spokesperson has an aggressive response to this B.S.

K&R

[ehrnst]

9. It didn't take long for them to use Trayvon to appeal to their racist base, did it?

Only the racist GOP could make Obama's oblique reference to both he and Trayvon being the same race could be spun as "divisive" and diminishing crimes against white people...