REPORTER: Did he lobby for her to take her job back or to take the new job?
GIBBS: She has a unique set of experiences and a unique opportunity to continue using those experiences to help people. That’s what he said to her, and obviously a decision about what she’s going to do is up to her. What Secretary Vilsack offered was something that allows her to again, as the president said, use some unique experiences to help root out what we know is a department that has struggled with discrimination.
RUSH: What am I missing here? I’m 59 years old. What is it that we all should know about the racism of the Department of Agriculture? What am I missing here? I’ve had people tell me, ‘That’s a reference to Reagan.’ What did Reagan do? Did he want to shut it down? What’s the institutional racism at USDA? Last I knew the USDA was giving a bunch of white farmers a bunch of money not to do anything. Last I heard the USDA was giving a bunch of corn farmers a bunch of subsidizes to turn the corn into ethanol. Well, no, I’m not ashamed to admit that I — (interruption) Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Reagan tried to close the USDA civil rights division? What? The US Department of Agriculture has a civil rights division? That can’t be. The US Department of Agriculture has or had a civil rights division and Reagan tried to close it and a black farmer sued? Is that the suit you’re talking about? (interruption) A long time ago, a class-action suit, was it Pigford vs. Glickman? Come on, Snerdley, you’re the one throwing out the lawsuit business here to me. See, I’m supposedly a racist and I don’t know of the racism going on at the USDA. And apparently it’s institutional. What the hell is Gibbs talking about here? The department has struggled with discrimination? I’m piecing this together even as we sit here. I’m going to have to check this during the break. It’s coming at me piecemeal and I’m not able to make heads or tails out of it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right, here’s this lawsuit in a nutshell. Obama has offered black farmers a $1.25 billion class-action award to settle claims of discrimination that started after Reagan closed the USDA’s civil rights office in 1981, and he’s offering women, Latino farmers, a similar settlement of $1.3 billion for the same thing. Folks, this is just reparations under a different name. It’s all this is.