Trump dismisses question on white privilege: "You really drank the Kool-Aid"
President Trump tells Bob Woodward he believes there is institutional racism in America that impacts peoples' lives and that it is "everywhere" and "unfortunate." But when the veteran Washington Post reporter asks Mr. Trump whether white privilege prevented him from fully understanding that impact and the anger it causes, the president mocks him for drinking "the Kool-Aid."
The conversation is part of Woodward's second book about President Trump, titled "Rage," and was reported from on-the-record interviews Woodward says he was permitted to record. Viewers can hear the president in his own voice and Woodward will tell Scott Pelley what he learned about President Trump on the next edition of 60 Minutes, Sunday, September 13, at 7 P.M., ET/PT on CBS.
An excerpt from the 60 Minutes interview was broadcast Thursday on CBS This Morning.
"Do you think there is systematic or institutional racism in this country?" Woodward is heard on tape asking the president.
"Well, I think there is everywhere," Mr. Trump responded, "I think probably less here than most places, or less here than many places."
"Okay, but is it here, in a way that it has an impact on people's lives?" Woodward asked.
"I think it is and it's unfortunate," Mr. Trump said. "But I think it is."
Woodward then asked Mr. Trump if a privileged life left him out of touch.
"…And do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave, to a certain extent, as it put me – and I think lots of White, privileged people – in a cave and that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain, particularly, Black people feel in this country? Do you see?" Woodward asked.
"No," the president said. "You, you really drank the Kool-Aid, didn't you? Just listen to you, wow. No, I don't feel that at all."
Wednesday, it was revealed that Mr. Trump knowingly downplayed the severity of the coronavirus threat in February.