Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, on Sunday accused President Donald Trump of being “a racist” who “built his political career” questioning the legitimacy of President Barack Obama.
In an interview on NBC News’ "Meet The Press," Brown, who’s mulling a presidential run in 2020, declared that “this country hasn’t dealt well with the issues of race.”
“We have a president who's a racist,” he said, prompting host Chuck Todd to interrupt, asking, “You believe in his heart he's a racist?”
“I don't know what in his heart means,” Brown answered. “I know he built his political career knowing what he was doing on questioning the legitimacy and the birthplace of the president of the United States. I know early there's been all kinds of news reports what he did early in his career on housing…and we know the Trump family including the now sitting president played to [housing discrimination] and deepened that.”
“We know he lies frequently, and we know of his racist comments and background,” Brown added. “That's not even counting the policies of this administration. We have consent decrees all over this country including in Cleveland. We have a Justice department that's turned its back on it. We know about voter suppression.”
Brown also touted his record of support for Medicare for all.
“Nobody accused me in my career of being an incrementist,” he said. “I always fought for bold change…we’ve worked for Medicare for all.”