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A Top Trump Adviser Says the U.S. Suffers No ‘Systemic Racism’

A Top Trump Adviser Says the U.S. Doesn’t Have ‘Systemic Racism’

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said Wednesday that he doesn’t regard “systemic racism” as a problem in the U.S.

“I don’t believe nowadays we have systemic racism,” Kudlow told reporters at the White House.

The White House is under pressure to address civil unrest over the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis police custody last month. Protesters in cities nationwide have accused police of systematic brutality against people of color and have demanded wide-ranging reforms.

Kudlow, who is white, said the White House is “looking at” an executive order on the matter. “We’re studying possible reforms,” he said.

Kudlow attributed high-profile cases of police brutality to some “very bad apples” and touted the Trump administration’s record setting up tax-advantaged “Opportunity Zones” in low-income neighborhoods and providing funding to historically black colleges and universities.

He said that he had fought for civil rights, and pointed to conservative columnist Heather MacDonald, who wrote in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that studies show “no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing.”

The White House said earlier that Trump will “discuss solutions to historic economic, health and justice disparities in American communities” at a roundtable event in Dallas on Thursday before a fundraiser.

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