WTF? Mississippi U.S.senate candidate wants Blacks to stop ‘begging’ for scraps

Chris McDaniel made the comments Friday during an edition of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show taped live at the University of Mississippi.

Chris McDaniel TheGrio
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel casts his ballot at the George Harrison Building on June 24, 2014 in Ellisville, Mississippi. Tea Party-backed republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Mississippi State Sen Chris McDaniel is battling against incumbent U.S. Sen Thad Cochran (R-MS) in a tight race.

A Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi wants Black people in the state to stop “begging” for scraps, the Clarion Ledger reported.

More specifically, candidate Chris McDaniel advises Black people in the Magnolia State to stop “begging for federal government scraps.”

McDaniel made the comments during an edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe show taped live at Ole Miss – a.k.a. the University of Mississippi—the same campus trying to leave in the past its 1962 riots launched by segregationists opposed to the enrollment of James Meredith. Today’s Ole Miss was not having it, and roundly booed McDaniel, a Mississippi state senator.

The exchange unfolded during a televised talk that edged into touchy topics: Mississippi’s state flag that includes a Confederate emblem, whether hip-hop music contributes to gun violence and McDaniel’s praise of Confederate General Robert E. Lee as a “man of unimpeachable integrity” who “opposed slavery.”

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Interviewer Eddie Glaude Jr., chairman of African-American studies at Princeton University, asked McDaniel how he would convince the Black people who make up 38 percent of the state that he is “not a danger to them.”

McDaniel came back with, “I am going to ask them, after 100 years, after 100 years of relying on big government to save you, where are you today? After 100 years of begging for federal government scraps, where are you today?”

This did not sit well with audience members, who jumped into a rousing chorus of boos.

McDaniel came back with a quick follow-up comment.

“I mean the state of Mississippi,” he said. “I’m talking about the state of Mississippi … To your question, the candidate I am is the candidate that wants to expand your liberty … break out of old ways.”

In a still later message to the Clarion Ledger, McDaniel questioned the news organization’s decision to focus on one comment that was part of an 11-minute segment. He also further clarified his position, saying in the message that Mississippi is “the dead last state of the Union in terms of wealth and economic prosperity, based on outdated economic models.”

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