President Donald Trump is not entirely to blame for the divisions in the United States, but he has "accelerated the problem" to the point where "we are on the brink of destroying ourselves," NAACP President Derrick Johnson said Wednesday while commenting on the growing unrest as protests continue after the death of George Floyd.
"We have to march to the polls in November," Johnson told MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. "We cannot sustain as a democracy, as a nation, what we are currently getting coming out of this administration."
Once change comes in the White House and in Congress, maybe then the type of momentum can come that would help deal with "systemic racism" in the United States, he claimed.
"We cannot be the nation for the future if we continue to operate under policies of the past," said Johnson. "A divided nation could never stand up and have a prosperous future. We are impeding our growth. It is about policy change. It's about undoing systemic and structural racism."
However, Johnson said he does not think the current administration is "capable intellectually" to address all Americans, so there is a leadership void.
"As a result of that, you are seeing people take to the streets, black, white, standing together, raising their voices," said Johnson. "The election is in November, and I hope we can stumble to November. When we get to November, all of these people who are turning out today, and I pray to God they are not sick because we are in the middle of a health pandemic. All of these policy decisions made by this administration have brought us to this moment."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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