Ooops

The Charlotte [North Carolina] City Council heard a request to revoke the RNC from holding its convention in the Queen City next year but city attorney Patrick Baker stated that there is nothing in the contract that allows the city to unilaterally leave the contract.

[...]

[O]n Monday night [they] supported a resolution to “strongly condemn,” among other things, President Donald Trump’s recent call for four congresswomen to leave the United States and supporters’ recent “Send Her Back” chant during a rally in North Carolina.

Council member Dimple Ajmera, a Democrat, said the vote was deeply personal. She immigrated to the United States from India, with her parents at age 16.

“I have been told to go back to the ‘sh--hole country’ that I came from,” Ajmera said.

[...]

Republican council member Ed Driggs said he would not support condemning Trump’s past comments and he criticized Mayor Vi Lyles’ decision to add the resolution just a few hours before Monday’s meeting took place.

“I don’t personally endorse the way the president has chosen to conduct himself,” Driggs said. “But he didn’t create the tension that we’re experiencing ... He’s the result of the tension.”

  Charlotte Observer

That's true, Driggs. But you can still condemn it. And should. You don't want to.

The resolution, which passed on a 9-2 vote, specifically calls out tweets and comments from Trump as “racist and xenophobic” and criticizes his assessment of white supremacist supporters in Charlottesville as “very fine people.”

All Democrats on the council supported the resolution. Republican members Tariq Bokhari and Driggs voted against it.

With a name like Tariq, he could be next to feel the effects of Trump's lead.

“I oppose phrases like ‘Send Her Back’ in the strongest possible way I can relate to you ... It’s tyrannical,” Bokhari said.

But he questioned why Charlotte’s local elected body should weigh in on national issues and on the question of racist rhetoric, he said. “How are we to be the judge of all that? ... It feels like the word ‘racism’ is thrown around like the word ‘witch’ in the 1600s.”

Wake up, Tariq.

The resolution cites four specific comments from Trump, from June 2017 to July 2019, and accuses the president of “racist and xenophobic social media tweets and comments.”

“Many of (Charlotte’s) residents are immigrants and/or people of color,” the resolution states. “The Charlotte City Council ... believes that Charlotte should always be welcoming and inviting of people of diverse and different ethnicities and background (sic), so long as those differences do not lead to personal insults or violent discourse.”

The resolution refers to Trump’s past comments about Haitian immigrants having AIDS and condemns the president’s rally in Greenville, N.C., last week where supporters chanted “Send her back.”

[...]

Several council members acknowledged the resolution would have “no teeth” beyond making a statement.

“The time to have done something was last year,” said council member LaWana Mayfield, who said the city could have chosen not to extend an invitation to host the RNC.

Yeah, but think of the publicity and money, LaWana.

Driggs said the benefits of hosting the RNC remain the same now as a year ago when a majority Democratic City Council approved it.

“It is not a campaign event for Donald Trump,” Driggs said. “Our willingness to host this event is not an endorsement.”

Of COURSE it's a campaign event for Trump. It's not like they're going to nominate someone else for 2020.

Bokhari went further and said that anyone espousing racist views should “not associate yourself with my Republican Party ... This is not OK.”

Have a look at your president, Tariq.  Besides, who are you to judge?