Ronald Reagan's Daughter Says Audio of Her Dad Calling African Diplomats 'Monkeys' Made Her Cry

[CatWoman]

Patti Davis, daughter of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, has spoken out after audio emerged of her father calling United Nations diplomats “monkeys” during a taped 1971 conversation with then-President Richard Nixon.

In a segment of the tape published in a July 30 article in The Atlantic, Reagan, who was then the governor of California, can be heard expressing his frustration to Nixon over the United Nations voting to recognize the People’s Republic of China with the help of delegates from African countries.

“To see those, those monkeys from those African countries — damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Reagan says on the tape, as Nixon laughs.

In a Washington Post op-ed published Thursday, Davis wrote that listening to her father’s racist remarks made her cry. “There is no defense, no rationalization, no suitable explanation for what my father said on that taped phone conversation.”

https://news.yahoo.com/ronald-reagans-daughter-says-audio-223052052.html?ncid=facebook_yahoonewsf_akfmevaatca

[gratuitous]

1. Patti has it right

It is no great leap, indeed it is all of a piece, to know that Ronald Reagan was racist. There is no defense, no raionalisation no explanation. Let us begin prying his name off of public spaces, yes?

[HAB911]

14. Start with National Airport!

[Skittles]

2. still, surely she had to have known he was a racist prick

I thought he was disgusting.

[CatWoman]

15. did you see where George Wallace's daughter made similar observations?

equating her father to Trump? actually, she said Trump was worse.

In any event, I feel sorry for the offspring of these scum.

Accident of birth put them where they were/are: you can't choose your parents.

[Skittles]

20. I did read about Peggy Wallace

I believe racism in a parent is a form of child abuse if you're instilling that kind of sickness into your kids. I'm glad Patti and Peggy are speaking out.

[Rhiannon12866]

21. I remember hearing back in the day that Wallace's daughter was an Obama supporter

And it's same with the Reagans. I remember when Ron Reagan was presented with a DNC pin when he appeared with Bill Press on Buchanan & Press on MSNBC.

[dweller]

3. sad that the daughter

has to relive the moment of her father's words ...
and instead of joy, is
moved
to
tears ...
😔

✌🏼

[pbmus]

4. Just amazing that Ronnie was not only a homophobic racist but a

Aw schucks mabel, a keep those commies in check Ollie, type of guy....

sell, oh shit no, give those Iranians missiles, guns, artillery, just keep them commies down Edwin...

Then bushy the 1st cleaned up his mess...pardoned everyone but the pope.

[Thunderbeast]

7. Led by AG William Barr

[SunSeeker]

5. I guess that's why Reagan switched from Dem to GOP. It was his racism.

The Dems supporting civil rights legislation must have been the last straw.

[democratisphere]

6. Looks like the racist rethuglicons are all finally coming out of the closet.

At least they won't have to deny they are all racists anymore.

[Tactical Peek]

8. How did Ronald Reagan get away with giving voice to sentiments that before seemed beyond the pale?

In this short 3-minute clip, author Rick Perlstein, author of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, on a panel at the 2014 Miami Book Fair, gives what I think is a very good analysis of Reagan's way of telling extremists they were ok, and that their critics were the real racists and so forth.


https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4520570/reagan-it

[calimary]

9. The proverbial sins of the father.

It’s got to be a huge jolt when one has looked up to a parent for all those years and abruptly learns some deep and disturbing new truth about that parent. I’m sure she looked up to him and loved him, even while they didn’t agree on everything.

It hurts when you find out that someone you’ve always considered a hero has feet of clay. Especially when it’s your own father.

I feel for her. They disagreed but she still loved and admired him, and respected him. Maybe he always hid that part of himself from his kids. Or maybe they got a glimpse of it but didn’t want to see, and didn’t want to know. What a rude awakening, though!

And to hear it from his own voice...

[greyl]

10. Appropriate response. nt

[mwb970]

11. I had always assumed that Reagan would forever be the worst president of my lifetime.

BOY was I wrong!!

[no_hypocrisy]

12. I don't see why she cried. RR likely spoke like that all the time when she was growing up.

My father did.

At the dinner table. At restaurants. At cocktail parties. At the country club. In the car.

My humiliation was while he was alive and isn't after he's dead.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. Wait 'til she hears about Iran-Contra.

[Beringia]

16. Ha, that's funny

[GoCubsGo]

17. That's how it's done.

I'm sure Ron, Jr. would agree with that. Nice to see someone not making excuses for another person's foul behavior. I have no idea how Patti and Ron, Jr. managed to escape their father's bigotry and general wing-nuttery. Perhaps their mother wasn't as awful as I have always thought her to be.

[malaise]

18. I hope all African Diplomats heard loud and clear

Fuck the fucking racists

[mulsh]

19. I rarely have anything good to say about RR & N. That their children are independent and

articulate defenders of their own beliefs speaks well of the parent's parenting skills.