上周，特朗普发布的一则帖子包含将前总统巴拉克·奥巴马和前第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马描绘成猿类的种族主义动画，纽约州共和党众议员迈克·劳勒周日重申了他对总统唐纳德·特朗普的批评。
劳勒在接受美国广播公司(ABC)新闻《本周》栏目联合主播乔纳森·卡尔采访时表示：“我认为，有时在我们的公共讨论中，最好就是直接说一句‘对不起’。”
劳勒是周五首批批评特朗普该帖子的共和党人之一，他表示，他相信白宫的说法，即该帖子是工作人员犯下的“错误”。劳勒还补充说，最初制作这个表情包的人“是个白痴”。
周五，当被问及是否会为该视频道歉时，特朗普告诉记者他不会。
“不，我没犯错。我是说，我看了很多东西——成千上万的东西，”特朗普说，“我看了开头部分，没问题。”
当被问及是否谴责视频中的种族主义部分时，特朗普说：“我当然谴责。”
特朗普的帖子中包含已被揭穿的2020年大选阴谋论，在视频接近尾声时，奥巴马夫妇的脸突然且短暂地毫无解释地出现在猿类身体上，同时播放着歌曲《今夜狮子沉睡》。白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特最初抨击对该视频的批评是“虚假愤怒”，随后白宫将责任归咎于一名工作人员，并在该帖子发布约12小时后将其删除。
南卡罗来纳州共和党参议员蒂姆·斯科特是特朗普最坚定的盟友之一，他是首批公开指责总统的知名共和党人之一，称该帖子是“我在白宫见过的最种族主义的事情”。
“我认为蒂姆·斯科特显然是首批发声的人之一。我不认为他是在虚假愤怒，”劳勒说。
“我认为绝大多数美国人都认识到，那种将首位黑人总统与大猩猩或猴子相提并论的图像是不敏感的、冒犯性的、种族主义的，”劳勒说。
他补充说：“无论这是故意的还是失误，事实是这是错误的。我们都应该能够承认这一点，然后继续前进。”
关于特朗普要求以自己名字命名宾夕法尼亚车站和杜勒斯国际机场的报道
卡尔：我们了解到，特朗普总统告诉参议院领袖查克·舒默，如果舒默愿意支持将宾夕法尼亚车站——顺便说一下，还有杜勒斯机场——以唐纳德·特朗普的名字命名，他就愿意解冻160亿美元用于纽约和新泽西一项重大基础设施项目的资金。这怎么能行呢?
劳勒：我一直反对冻结资金。但我们是怎么走到这一步的呢?查克·舒默去年秋天决定让政府停摆43天。结果，这项关键基础设施项目在停摆期间被冻结，当时整个联邦政府都耗尽了资金。我知道总统和参议员舒默之间进行了多次对话，试图解决这个问题。
卡尔：我是说，他是在以这些设施以自己名字命名为条件来扣留资金。这不是像‘让我们纪念某人’那样。他希望以自己的名字命名，并表示如果他们这么做，他就会解冻资金。
劳勒：乔恩，说到底，对我来说，我真的不太在乎一栋建筑叫什么名字。关键是一项关键基础设施项目。我在乎的是它能完成。最终，在我看来，你们得解决这个问题。这些家伙已经认识彼此大约50年了。你知道，从我的角度来看，这由来已久。
关于两党移民解决方案
劳勒：看，这个问题我已经关注多年了。你知道，40年来，我们一直没有解决移民危机。拜登政府时期发生的事情让美国人民感到愤怒，当时有超过1050万移民越过我们的边境，其中大多数是非法越境。你知道，南部边境漏洞百出，需要关闭，特朗普总统做到了这一点。事实上，我们已经连续九个月非法越境人数为零。有67.5万人被驱逐出境，190万人自行离境，其中许多人是有犯罪记录的外国人或涉及刑事司法系统的人，美国人民绝大多数支持这一点。但他们也认为，如果你在这个国家已经待了五年、十年、十五年、二十年，无论对错，你的子女和孙辈都是美国公民，人们不希望看到家庭被拆散。
因此，必须有一条合法的途径，不是成为公民的途径，而是一条让人们走出阴影的合法途径，这样他们就可以合法工作，缴纳税款，补缴欠税，缴纳罚款，不领取政府福利，不犯罪，这就是《尊严法案》的基础，这样我们才能真正开始解决这场已经持续40年的危机。我们国家有超过2500万无证移民。你不可能把他们全部抓起来并驱逐出境。这不现实。
GOP Rep. Lawler says image posted by Trump mocking Obamas was 'racist'
New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler reiterated his criticism of President Donald Trump on Sunday after apost from Trumplast week included a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted as apes.
"I think sometimes in our public discourse it is best to just say, 'I'm sorry,'" Lawler told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Lawler, who was one of the first Republicans to criticize Trump over the post on Friday,saidthat he is taking the White House at its word that the post was a "mistake" made by a staffer.Lawler added thatwhoever originally created the meme "is an idiot."
Asked on Friday if he would apologize for the video, Trump told reportershe would not.
"No, I didn't make a mistake. I mean, I look at a lot of -- thousands of things," Trump said. "And I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine."
Asked if he condemned the racist portion of the video, Trump said, "Of course I do."
Trump's post included claims of debunked 2020 election conspiracies before the Obamas' faces appear near the end on the bodies of apes abruptly and briefly without explanation with the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" playing over it. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially blasted criticism of the video as "fake outrage" before the White House later blamed it on a staffer and deleted the post about 12 hours after it went online.
GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, one of Trump's staunchest allies, was one of the first prominent Republican to call out the president, calling the post "the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House."
"I think Tim Scott obviously was one of the first people to speak out. I don't think he was engaged in fake outrage," Lawler said.
"I think the vast majority of Americans recognize that that type of imagery, and trying to, you know, compare, the first Black president to a gorilla or a monkey, is insensitive, it's offensive, it's racist," Lawler said.
He added, "Whether it was intentional or a mistake, the fact is it's wrong. And we should all just be able to acknowledge that and move forward."
On reports Trump asked for Penn Station and Dulles International Airport named for him
Karl:We learned that President Trump told Chuck Schumer, the Senate leader, that he would be willing to unfreeze $16 billion in funding for a major infrastructure project in New York and New Jersey if the president -- if Schumer were willing to endorse the idea ofrenamingPenn Station -- and, by the way, Dulles Airport -- after Donald Trump. How how is that OK?
Lawler:I have been against freezing the funds. But how did we get here? Chuck Schumer decided, last fall to shut the government down for 43 days.And as a result, this critical infrastructure project was frozen during that shutdown, in which the entirety of the federal government, you know, was depleted of funds. I know there have been numerous conversations between the president and Senator Schumer to try and resolve this.
Karl:I mean, he's holding the money hostage for having these things named after him. I mean, this is not like part of a, 'Let's honor somebody.' He wants it named after himself and he's saying he will unfreeze the money if they'll do it.
Lawler:Jon, at the end of the day to me, I really could care less what the name of a building is. A critical infrastructure project is. I care that it gets done. And ultimately in my, from my vantage point, you know, work it out. These guys have been in, in, known each other for roughly 50 years. You know, this goes back a long time from my vantage point.
On a bipartisan immigration solution
Lawler:Look, this is an issue that I've been focused on for years. You know, for 40 years, we have not solved our immigration crisis. The American people were rightly outraged by what happened under the Biden administration, where you had over 10.5 million migrants cross our border, most of them illegally. You know, porous southern border needed to be shut down, President Trump did that. The fact is that we have had nine straight months of net-zero illegal border crossings. You've had 675,000 people deported, 1.9 million people self-deport, many of those folks, criminal aliens or people who have been involved in the criminal justice system, the American people overwhelmingly support that. But what they do believe, if you've been in this country, right or wrong, for five, ten, 15, 20 years, your children and your grandchildren are American citizens, people don't want to see families broken apart.
And so there's got to be a legal path forward, not a path to citizenship, but a legal path forward for people to come out of the shadows so that they can work legally, that they can pay their taxes, pay any back taxes owed, pay a fine, not collect government benefits, and not commit a crime that is the basis of the Dignity Act, so that we can actually start to solve a crisis that has been in effect for 40 years. We have over 25 million people in this country who are undocumented. You're not rounding them all up and kicking them out. It’s not realistic.
