June 30, 2019

Julián Castro Labels Donald Trump Jr. a “Coward” For Racist Kamala Harris Attack

“A right-wing effort to delegitimize an accomplished and powerful black woman.”

Joe Raedle/Tom Williams

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During last Thursday’s televised Democratic debate, the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., shared—then deleted—a tweet saying Sen. Kamala Harris wasn’t black enough to understand the problems faced by black Americans, provoking a fierce, unified backlash from Harris’s fellow presidential candidates.

“Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves,” alt-wing identity Ali Alexander tweeted. “She’s not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That’s fine. She’s not an American Black. Period.”

“Is this true? Wow,” Trump Jr responded, as he amplified the tweet to his millions of followers. Harris’s mother was from India and her father is Jamaican.

On Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, presidential hopeful Julián Castro stepped up the condemnation of Harris by calling Trump Jr.’s tweet “disgusting” and labeling him a “coward.”

“He’s giving voice to these racist utterances about Senator Harris,” Castro said. “We need to dispel them immediately, and condemn them, and then not give them any more life because they are disgusting.”

Castro also tweeted Sunday morning that Trump’s retweet could be linked to “a right-wing effort to delegitimize an accomplished and powerful black woman.”

Castro’s comments added to a wave of criticism from Harris’s Democratic opponents. “We all have an obligation to speak out and say so,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted last week. “And it’s within the power and obligation of tech companies to stop these vile lies dead in their tracks.”

Kamala Harris “doesn’t have shit to prove,” tweeted Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

Correction: This article has been updated to fix an editing error that referred to Castro as a “former” presidential hopeful.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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