Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” MSNBC host Joy Reid said President Donald Trump’s tweets in response to the criticism from San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz showed a “particular reflex” to “attack women of color.”

Reid said, “Donald Trump is just being himself. Right? He’s channeling his base. He’s talking to them, but he’s channeling them. Before Donald Trump started tweeting, some of the more prominent members of his base were calling the mayor even worse names than that. Saying she’s a murderer and she belongs in jail. He’s getting these signals and sharing them because he shares their view.”

She continued, “It is interesting that Donald Trump’s reflex is to say that a woman, a woman of color, you know, is an ingrate or to attack her or say the people of Puerto Rico essentially are too lazy to help themselves, want something from the federal government, they won’t provide to themselves. He went on the tweet storm which is the most he had talked about Puerto Rico at all. A year to the day after he attacked the former Miss Universe, Donald Trump has a particular reflex to attack women, to attack women of color, and to signal boost to his base this idea that people of color are lazy, and dependent, and won’t do for themselves. He’s sharing that with a large portion of his base.”

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