Trump official in Ohio resigns after racial remarks
Donald Trump's Mahoning County campaign chairwoman resigned Thursday after she was featured in a viral internet video declaring there was "no racism" before President Barack Obama's administration, among other things.
“If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault. You’ve had every opportunity, it was given to you,” Kathy Miller told The Guardian. The British media outlet was in Youngstown, Mahoning County's seat, as part of its "Anywhere But Washington" election series.
“You’ve had the same schools everybody else went to. You had benefits to go to college that white kids didn’t have. You had all the advantages and didn’t take advantage of it. It’s not our fault, certainly.”
Miller also called the Black Lives Matter movement “a stupid waste of time” and said lower voter turnout among African Americans could be related to “the way they’re raised”.
In a statement released by the Trump campaign, Miller said: "My personal comments were inappropriate, and I apologize. I am not a spokesperson for the campaign and was not speaking on its behalf. I have resigned as the volunteer campaign chair in Mahoning County and as an elector to the Electoral College to avoid any unnecessary distractions."
Trump's Ohio state director, Bob Paduchik, said Miller's comments were "inappropriate." She has been replaced, Paduchik said, by Tracey Winbush, a prominent African-American in the Ohio GOP.
Winbush had been a leading Never Trumper until a few months ago, but said in this video from Ohio Capital Blog if Trump became the nominee, "My comments about Trump, I'm going to have to eat, because I'm not going to support Hillary." Thursday afternoon, Winbush began deleting all her tweets, likely including some that opposed Trump.
She later tweeted that she had just joined Twitter, which is factually incorrect.
Chrissie Thompson contributed to this report.
A Trump campaign chair in Ohio says there was 'no racism' before Obama