September 22, 2016 | No Comments
Donald Trump Jr. defended comparing the candy Skittles to Syrian refugees Thursday, saying he was surprised by the reaction his tweet caused and explained he was simply making a metaphor “for risk and probability.”
“We have to be careful about those things,” he said in video posted to social media by CNN.
When asked if he’s concerned about being a distraction for the campaign, he said, “I’m not trying to be a distraction, I’m trying to point out things that have to be said, I think,”
“People will today make what they want of anything, and they see the worse in everything, and they look for a subtext that doesn’t exist,” he said from a campaign stop in Boise, adding, “For me, you know, I guess I’m a straightforward guy. You know? I don’t deal in micro-aggressions where it takes a special kind of person to find whatever message they’re looking for.”
He further defended his controversial remarks by saying, “If a metaphor offends someone, I can understand that and maybe that’s the world we live in today, but I’m not comparing someone to candy, I’m using it as a – it’s a statistical thing. We have to be careful who let into this country. You’ve seen what’s going on in Europe – and this is not just about terrorists, it’s about the rape statistics that have gone on there.”
On Monday, Trump, Jr. tweeted a photo of a bowl of skittles captioned, “If I had a bowl of skittles and told you three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.”
A large social media backlash ensued, and he was heavily criticized for likening refugees to the fruit candy. Skittles parent company Wrigley also denounced the tweet.