President Obama still thinks the “thugs” who rioted in Baltimore are thugs, even though he didn’t use the word Wednesday and Baltimore’s mayor explicitly backed off her use of the word.
The White House said Mr. Obama wasn’t trying to clean up his language Wednesday when he avoided the word “thugs” in an interview with radio host Steve Harvey, referring to rioters at one point as “these kids.”
At a press conference Tuesday, Mr. Obama criticized “criminals and thugs who tore up the place.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest rejected a reporter’s suggestion that Mr. Obama stopped using the word “thugs” because some black activists called it a racist dog whistle.
Baltimore City Council member Carl Stokes, when challenged on CNN by host Erin Burnett, said the very word is racist.
“Just call them n——-,” Mr. Stokes said. “Just call them n——-. No, we don’t have to call them by names such as that. We don’t have to do that.”
“You wouldn’t call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you would want them to do,” Mr. Stokes said.
Other officials began to back off.
On Wednesday, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake used Twitter to “clarify” her Monday night press conference at which she said “too many people have invested in building up this city to allow thugs to tear it down.”
She spoke differently Wednesday.
“I wanted to clarify my comments on ’thugs.’ When you speak out of frustration and anger, one can say things in a way that you don’t mean. That night we saw misguided young people who need to be held accountable, but who also need support. And my comments then didn’t convey that,” she said.
At the White House, Mr. Earnest said such considerations were not on Mr. Obama’s mind.
“I assure you that it was not” an attempt to clean up his language, Mr. Earnest said. “I don’t think the president would in any way revise the remarks” from Tuesday.
“I’ll let you guys sort of decide what sort of — you know, how those words get interpreted,” Mr. Earnest told reporters. “When you’re looting up a convenience store or you’re throwing a cinder block at a police officer, you’re engaging in thuggish behavior, and that’s why the president used that word.”
Mr. Earnest said the president believes the “actions of a small minority [in Baltimore] were nothing short of criminal.”
“Whether it’s arson or the looting of a liquor store, those were thuggish acts,” Mr. Earnest said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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