Last Updated on September 18, 2022
Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, a Democrat who is currently his party’s nominee for U.S. Senate, rejected the notion that America’s wealth was “justly earned” in a newly released video clip. Barnes also said he supports the teaching of Critical Race Theory and associated ideas so that America can atone for its past. The clip reveals additional segments from a speech that already made headlines over the summer, in which Barnes claimed that America’s founders are “awful.”
Over this past July Fourth Weekend, Milwaukee-based talk show host Dan O’Donnell published a short 37-second video on social media in which Mandela Barnes shared his feelings on the nation’s history and founders. “Things were bad, things were terrible,” the senate hopeful said of the time period in which the United States was founded.
“The founding of this nation? Awful,” Barnes added, noting that Americans need to “commit” themselves to repairing the “harm” and “damage” done in the past. He went on to say that the lasting effects of colonialism and slavery are still impacting Americans today, and that “they’re going to continue to be felt unless we address it, in a meaningful way.”
Wisconsin Democrat Senate candidate Mandela Barnes says the founding of America was “awful!” pic.twitter.com/EgvIKYi9qH
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 5, 2022
In a statement to Fox News, a spokesperson for Barnes claimed his comments were being taken out of context. “Painting the Lt. Governor’s comment as anything other than a condemnation of slavery is a sad GOP attempt to distract from Ron Johnson trying to literally overthrow the government of this country and strip reproductive rights from millions of Americans,” said the Johnson campaign when asked about the comments.
In an extended version of remarks Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes made to supporters, the senate hopeful rejected the notion that America’s vast wealth was “justly earned” and endorsed the concept of Critical Race Theory in Wisconsin schools.
“I didn’t even get to the point about Critical Race Theory,” Barnes said. “That’s something else too. You know, it would be foolish to assume that the wealth of America was earned justly.”
An online flyer for the event from the Portage Area Chamber of Commerce described the event as a Q-and-A session discussing “issues of racism and systemic racism as they affect rural communities.”
The Barnes campaign has referred to the July statement to Fox News when asked about the latest clip.