Miller quits Trump campaign after roiling the political waters with statements about racism

Wow, that was fast.

I was talking Thursday to Kathy Miller, chairwoman of Mahoning County for Trump, about her controversial statements to The Guardian about African Americans and how racism only came about after Democrat Barack Obama became president.

She was unapologetic saying she made the comments, but not in “the context you see it.”

I don’t know how you can put something like this in a different context: “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 gave me a few more statements. While her phone kept ringing, she didn’t realize what was happening.

A storm was brewing as the article, published a few hours earlier, went viral. I had at least a dozen emails from people, many whom I haven’t heard from in ages, asking if I’d read it.

I next spoke to county Republican Party Chairman Mark Munroe who called for the campaign of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump to get rid of Miller, a volunteer coordinator. Munroe said he spoke to Trump officials in Ohio who were “very concerned and very distressed by Miller’s remarks.”

I placed a call to a Trump spokesman that wasn’t returned.

About 20 minutes later, an email from the Trump campaign arrived announcing that Miller had resigned not only as county campaign chairwoman, but as the 13th Congressional District’s representative to the Electoral College should Trump win Ohio.

“My personal comments were inappropriate, and I apologize,” Miller said in the prepared statement. “I am not a spokesperson for the campaign and was not speaking on its behalf.”

But was she really sorry and did she actually believe her statements were inappropriate?

In an interview after the announcement, I asked, “So what happened in the 20 minutes since we spoke and the campaign put out the statement?”

“My phone was blowing up,” she said. “It became apparent I would be a story instead of getting Mr. Trump elected.”

As for being sorry, Miller said she felt that way only because of how it could impact Trump’s effort and not for what she said.

And, yes, she still believes what she said to The Guardian was appropriate and correct.

Among her statements were: “I don’t think there was any racism until 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 there was “no racism” during the 1960s, and the Black Lives Matter movement is a “stupid waste of time.”

Miller told me the movement “focuses on all the wrong things. We’re all important. Why would you single out one group? Why just one group? That’s what I was pointing out. If it’s good for me, it’s good for everyone.”

Miller said she was the victim of discrimination as a woman, including at her first job where she was paid less than men even though, she said, she was more qualified.

Jaladah Aslam, president of the Youngstown Warren Black Caucus and a Democrat, said that Miller’s comments were the same she’s heard from Trump and his supporters.

“That’s just who they are,” she said. “I’m talking about Donald Trump and a lot of his white national supporters. You have to be pretty dumb and blind to say there’s never been racism in Ohio. Racism is alive and well in this Valley. The fact she feels comfortable saying this is what this campaign is about. It is a campaign about fear, exclusion and people of color no longer included at the table.”

Aslam called Trump “the Great White Hope.”

Trump “wants to make America white again, not make America great again. If you don’t look like them, they don’t want to have anything to do with you.”

Less than a week ago, Miller sat inside a Youngstown church listening to Katrina Pierson, Trump’s national campaign spokeswoman, discuss the election.

Before that, I asked Pierson if her job was difficult because of Trump changing his position on the false “birther movement” claims that Obama wasn’t born in the United States.

In response, Pierson said Trump “doesn’t change his mind. He just expands his policies. I can understand why that’s perceived as changing minds in the political world, but at the same time, he’s been the same the entire time. He’s just expanding his policies.”

I guess the same can be said for Miller.