Cher Spreads Fake News to Declare Trump 'More Than a White Supremacist'
Left-wing pop icon Cher took to social media over the weekend and cited a smear from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Cher then declared that President Donald Trump’s “actions and his rhetoric” leave her wondering “How can Trump be president of America.”
“I Believe trump is more than a racist,more than a White supremacist,More Than a white nationalist,” Cher said late Saturday. “As I see his actions,& hear his rhetoric,I hear the drum beat of Ethno Nationalism. HOW CAN trump BE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA…HE HATES SO MANY ”AMERICANS.’”
I Believe trump is more than a racist,more than a White supremacist,More Than a white nationalist. As I see his actions,& hear his rhetoric,I hear
the drum beat of
Ethno Nationalism.
HOW CAN trump BE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA…HE HATES SO MANY ”AMERICANS” pic.twitter.com/30fSqBnTOJ— Cher (@cher) August 18, 2019
The grammy-winner’s all-caps rant was one of many tweets that referenced President Trump’s latest federal judicial nominee Steven Menashi.
Cher linked to an article that challenged MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s claim that Menashi advocates for “racial Purity.” The claim was based on a 2010 law review article that Menashi authored.
“trump LIKES This Guy,So Why Doesn’t He Want To Take Credit For His Paper?” Cher fumed. “Nominee Marches Like White Supremacist,Talks Like White Nationalist,Salutes Like Ethnonationalist.”
Breitbart senior Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak pushed back on Maddow’s misrepresentation of Menahsi’s writing:
While it may be a bridge too far to accuse her of antisemitism, merely because Menashi is Jewish, Maddow is guilty of smearing him as a racist based on distortions of his writings so egregious that it is clear she either never read the articles she cites; did not understand them; or — worst of all — read them, understood them, and misconstrued them.
. . .
In 2010, Menashi published a law review article in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law titled, “Ethnonationalism and Liberal Democracy.” The article sought to defend Israel from criticism that it violates democratic norms because it adopts the Jewish community as the basis for its national identity (though it grants equal rights to Arabs and other minorities).
Menashi, who is himself a Jew of Iraqi origin, argued that ethno-nationalism and democracy can often go hand-in-hand. He was responding to arguments from post-nationalist scholars like historian Tony Judt, who favored the dismantling of Israel. (The weakness of “liberal universalism,” he pointed out, at least for Jews, was that it had not prevented the Holocaust.)
Pollak also notes that “Maddow used a selective reading of his article to accuse him of being a racial extremist.”
“She quoted his article selectively, and inaccurately, claiming that Menashi had argued that ‘democracy can’t work unless the country is defined by a unifying race.’ At no point did Menashi ever say that or discuss “a unifying race.'” Pollak wrote.
It’s safe to say that Cher, like Maddow and her substantial staff of writers and producers, either didn’t read Menashi’s articles in full or did so and intentionally misrepresented his writings to smear him as a racist as a means to bash Trump.
Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the forthcoming book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know, from HarperCollins. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.