Despite apology, GOP ex-chair stands by comments


RELATED: • Yes, Kathy Miller, racism did exist

• RACISM TALK

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Doug Franklin speaks about Kathy Miller's comments

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Warren Mayor Doug Franklin speaks on the remarks from Kathy Miller.

Kathy Miller apologized for “inappropriate” comments she made about African-Americans and racism – leading to her resignation as Donald Trump’s Mahoning County campaign chairwoman and a Republican member of the Electoral College.

She also said, however, she stands by her statements.

“I’m apologizing that it’s causing all the problems for Mr. Trump, not for the statements,” Miller said Thursday in an exclusive interview with The Vindicator. “It’s just a distraction. I thought it was best to step aside.”

The Guardian published an article online Thursday that quoted Miller, Trump’s volunteer coordinator in Mahoning County, saying: “I don’t think there was any racism until [President Barack] Obama got elected. We never had problems like this ... now, with the people with the guns, and shooting up neighborhoods, and not being responsible citizens, that’s a big change, and I think that’s the philosophy that Obama has perpetuated on America.”

She also said, “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.”

Miller called the Black Lives Matter movement “a stupid waste of time.” There was “no racism” when she was growing up,” and she didn’t care if people found her remarks offensive because “it’s the truth.”

Miller told The Vindicator she should have used the word “discrimination” rather than “racism.” She also said she was the victim of discrimination.

Expanding on her comments regarding Obama and racism, Miller said the Democratic president “put a focus on it. I believe, to a large extent, we didn’t have problems before.”

Miller, a former Boardman Township trustee, said having to give up her position on the Electoral College is particularly painful, but after speaking with the Trump campaign, she decided it was necessary.

Miller’s remarks were condemned by Democrats and Republicans.

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin, speaking at the Hillary Clinton for president headquarters in Warren, said he would like to see Trump apologize for Miller’s remarks.

Franklin called Miller’s comments “very discriminatory and divisive.”

“For any leader, regardless of party, to say that racism only existed when Obama became president is really the height of misunderstanding and ignorance,” he said.

Franklin called her words appalling and said Miller “did a disservice to herself, the Trump campaign and to America and to history.”

He added that Miller’s comments put the Mahoning Valley in a bad light.

Upon reading Miller’s comments, Mark Munroe, the county’s Republican Party chairman, told The Vindicator the Trump campaign should immediately remove her, and that he had contacted Trump officials in Ohio about making that move.

“I find her remarks shocking and offensive and they certainly in no way reflect the views of the Mahoning County Republican Party,” Munroe said.

Munroe said Miller’s statement that “racism didn’t exist before Obama was president is insane. It’s been a serious and difficult problem for our society, and we’re all trying to address it together and her statements are, oh, my God, I can’t even use the words.”

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, said, “These comments are a new low in the Trump campaign’s race to the bottom. Donald J. Trump has inspired, reinforced and added fuel to these sorts of racist and divisive comments over the course of his life and his candidacy.”

Jaladah Aslam, president of the Youngstown Warren Black Caucus and a Democrat, said, “Kathy Miller is the same kind of racist Donald Trump is. She was rude. She was wrong, but that’s the campaign Trump is running.”

Bob Paduchik, Trump’s Ohio state director, said in a prepared statement the county chairmen and chairwomen aren’t “spokespeople for the campaign.”

Paduchik said he accepted Miller’s resignation “in light of these inappropriate comments,” and replaced her as chairwoman and as the 13th Congressional District representative to the Electoral College with Tracey Winbush, county GOP vice chairwoman.

Winbush embraced Trump during the Republican National Convention in July after months of criticizing him.

Winbush, a delegate for Ohio Gov. John Kasich in his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination, wiped her Twitter account clean Thursday of more than 12,500 tweets going back to November 2008.

Instead, there are two tweets posted Thursday: “Hello Twitter! #myfirstTweet” and “I look forward to serving the Mahoning Valley for @RealDonaldTrump campaign. What a blessing.”

Gone are tweets critical of Trump, including one from Feb. 9 in which she re-tweeted a Huffington Post story headlined: “A Racist, Sexist Demagogue Just Won the New Hampshire Primary.”

David Betras, the county’s Democratic Party chairman, said Winbush “doesn’t have the courage of her convictions to keep her critical comments about her candidate on her Twitter account. Like her candidate, she is a coward.”

Winbush didn’t return a Thursday phone call from The Vindicator.

Through the Trump campaign, Winbush sent a statement saying she was “proud to take a leadership role in Mr. Trump’s campaign. Although I supported another candidate in the primary, I am 100 percent behind Mr. Trump.”

In an April meeting of the Ohio Republican Party, Winbush said Trump offended her as a black American “by some of the comments and some of the tactics” he took.

On July 20, the third day of the four-day convention in Cleveland, Winbush said Trump wasn’t a racist.

She described him as “Uncle Bob who sits at the Thanksgiving table who says something that embarrasses you,” but doesn’t mean to do so.

Miller told The Vindicator that The Guardian reporter who interviewed her was only interested in asking her if Trump is a racist.

Paul Lewis, the reporter, said he asked Miller a range of questions, and when he heard her responses to race relations, “it became clear to me early on that Ms. Miller had opinions that people would [be concerned about] so I questioned her as a journalist. I asked questions in a fair and balanced way.”

Lewis added: “African-American folks I met in Youngstown told me that [Trump’s] rhetoric is inflammatory and offensive and was enabling people with [racist] views to express them.”

Miller’s statements were widely condemned by local black leaders.

The Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, senior pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown, said they “were the most racist comments that I’ve heard in a long time. It’s just, in essence, what we’ve been saying all along: This is a racist campaign that Trump is running, and for her to sit there and say racism didn’t exist before Obama. I mean, racism has always existed.”

Jimma McWilson, vice president of the Youngstown Branch of the NAACP, said he doesn’t know if Miller is a racist, but “she’s ignorant and she’s in denial about what she knows. That’s a dangerous combination.”

The Rev. Lewis W. Macklin II, pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Youngstown, said Miller’s assertions – that there was no racism before Obama’s election and that if people haven’t improved their lives it’s their own fault – defy reason.

“Even Archie Bunker would scratch his head on that one,” the Rev. Mr. Macklin said, alluding to the famously bigoted character created by Norman Lear on the 1970s TV show “All in the Family.”

Miller, a real-estate broker and appraiser, said when she started in the business in the 1970s, women faced discrimination when it came to getting mortgages, and only nurses and teachers were able to get them.

“I have been active in the real-estate business for 44 years; yes, when I started, prejudice existed in the Youngstown” area, said John Burgan of Burgan Real Estate. “I have seen a complete change, mostly because people realize they could not refuse to sell real estate to someone based on their religion, based on their race, or their creed.”

When he came to Youngstown in the 1970s from the small town of Victor, N.Y., Burgan said he was shocked to see racial steering take place.

Michael D. Klacik, broker for Klacik Real Estate, said racism in real estate may have been more prevalent in the past than it is today.

“I think it has improved drastically,” Klacik said. “We are interested in one thing and that’s to move real estate.”

Contributors: Staff writers Ed Runyan, Jordyn Grzelewski, Denise Dick and Kalea Hall