RUTHFULLY YOURS

Editor’s note: This piece was originally published on I&I on July 3. It has been excerpted with permission from the author. To read the entire article, click here.

John McWhorter, the prominent academic, author and New York Times columnist, wants everyone to know that he’s sorry that he recently suggested it would be a good thing if someone were to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

Except he’s not, really. But at least he owns it.

“I have taken a great deal of heat for saying, for implying, that I wish somebody would kill Donald Trump,” McWhorter said on the new episode of “The Glenn Show” with Brown University economics professor Glenn Loury. “That is exactly what I was implying. It was irresponsible of me to say that in a public space. I really shouldn’t have said it here.”

But then McWhorter acknowledges that it wasn’t a one-off. “I have said it often,” he admitted. (The podcast can be found here; the conversation on Trump starts at 4:04, and McWhorter’s non-apology apology begins at 17:49.)

This was all too much for Loury.

“Do you realize the hell that will be unleashed on the country if people continue to talk like that? This is not something that you just casually throw around – killing politicians who you don’t like …” Loury said. “Do you think it ends there? Do you think that if somebody were to do something along the lines that you’re suggesting, that would be the end of it?”

To which McWhorter’s flippantly responded: “Well, somebody else would run (as the Republican nominee). Anyone but (Trump) would be better.”