Ta-Nehisi Coates: Trump ‘Wouldn’t Be President’ Were He Not a ‘White Supremacist’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

HAYES: "Are you using it in a much more expansive sentence. What is that doing? Why are you doing that?"
COATES: "Well, I think if you own a business that attempts to keep black people from renting from you, if you are reported to say you don't want black people counting 94 money. If you say, you know, and not report it. Come out and say, someone can't judge their case because they're Mexican. If your response to the first black president is they weren't born in this country, despite all proof. Few say they weren't smart enough to go to Harvard law school and demand to see their grades, if that's the essence of your entire political identity, you might be a white supremacist. It's just possible. I'm willing to have that debate and hear the other side. By you might be. I think with Donald Trump, I wouldn't say George Bush is a white supremacist. I have a problem with his policies. I can make an argument how they affect black people in a negative way? Right."
COATES: "I wouldn't argue he's a white supremacist. I wouldn't argue Mitt Romney is a white supremacist."
HAYES: "In terms of the essential core of what he is doing --"
COATES: "I don't think he's president without it. I think that's the huge difference. It's not a side. It's not like bush 1 for instance with Willie Horton, which was bad, by the way, right? Not definite. This is a thing in order to get over. It's the core of him. He began his career in birtherrism. It wasn't along the way. That was what kicked it off. So I think in that sense, he's different."