Trump favors the white guy over the first Asian American No. 1 draft pick

Draft pick No. 2, Nick Bosa, left, was congratulated by Trump. The No. 1 pick, Murray was ignored.

Leave it to Donald Trump to make the NFL draft about himself and his base.

Apparently, winning the Heisman Trophy, the award given to the best college football player, getting drafted in pro-football AND major league baseball or being the first Asian American to be taken No. 1 in the NFL draft was good enough for Trump to send Kyler Murray a congratulatory message

Instead, Trump opted to tweet congratulations to the No. 2 pick, defensive end Nick Bosa, who is white, and passed over the Arizona Cardinal's choice, Murray, who is part Korean and part African American.

"Congratulations to Nick Bosa on being picked number two in the NFL Draft. You will be a great player for years to come, maybe one of the best. Big Talent! San Francisco will embrace you but most importantly, always stay true to yourself. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump tweeted, completely ignoring Murray's accomplishments.

Bosa voiced his support for Trump on social media years ago. However, more recently he had been critical on numerous occasions of Colin Kaepernick and his national anthem protests. He even went after Black excellence in various tweets, calling Beyonce and Jay-Z’s music “trash” and describing Black Panther as the “worst Marvel movie” ever. All tweets about Kaepernick and attacks on Black celebrities have been deleted from Bosa’s Twitter account. 

The fact that the offensive tweets were deleted indicates Bosa and 49ers are aware the public relations challenge for the team in the liberal San Francisco Bay Area.

In his first press conference in front of reporters who cover the 49ers, Bosa apologized for his past remarks, attributing them to his younger self. 

"I'm sorry if I hurt anybody," Bosa said. "I definitely didn't intend for that to be the case. I think me being here (San Francisco) is even better for me as a person, because I don't think there's anywhere, any city, that you could really be in that would help you grow as much as this one will. I'm going to be surrounded with people of all different kinds, so I'm going to grow as a person. I'm going to be on my own. I'm going to grow up, I'm gonna learn a lot of new things. It's exciting."

Talking about Kaepernick, who started kneeling during the National Anthem in protest of the unequal treatment of people of color by the judiciaal system.

"No, It wasn't directed toward that. It's not like I'm saying his stance and what he was doing -- that's not what I was talking about at all," said Bosa. "It was just a specific thing that happened, and me, as a young kid, a thought popping into my head and, boom, decided to tweet it out. Bad decision. I respect what he's done. If it empowers anybody, then he's doing a good thing. I apologize for that."

Forgotten in the Twitter storm generated by Trump's diss is U. of Oklahoma quarterback Murray, who has thus far kept his political views to himself. Drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, Murray's father is African American and his mother is half Korean.

Ignored by Trump, Murray has attracted the attention of basketball legend LeBron James. Murray has come to an agreement with James' production company for a documentary about Murray's journey to becoming a professional football player. 

After winning the Heisman Trophy last year, he did apologize for homophobic rermarks he tweeted in 2012.

“I apologize for the tweets that have come to light tonight from when I was 14 and 15. I used a poor choice of word that doesn’t reflect who I am or what I believe. I did not intend to single out any individual or group.”

To the credit of both young men, they owned up to their past mistakes and apologized. That is more than can be said about Trump, who hasn't apologized for ignoring Murray, the first player chosen in the NFL draft.

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Racist, vile, vulgar language scuttles DACA deal, draws strong reaction from AAPI community

DACA enrollees ask: "Now What?

(UPDATED 10 p.m., Jan. 12)

BY NOW we've all heard about the racist comments uttered by Donald Trump. The noise and fury arising from those remarks drowned out the reason the meeting was being held.

What has almost been lost in the coverage of the story, is that two senators came forward with a bipartisan deal that might have been a solution for the 800,000 young Dreamers who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. About 13,000 of the almost 800,000 DACA participants are from Asia, mostly from South Korea, the Philippines, India and Pakistan.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham were meeting with Trump to discuss a compromise plan from a bipartisan "Gang of Six" senators, The other members of the "Gang of Six" included Republicans Jeff Flake and Cory Gardner and Democrats Michael Bennet and Bob Menendez.

Durbin and Graham arrived at the White House expecting to meet with Trump but they were surprised that also invited to the meeting were a group of Republican senators noted for their hardline positions on immigration. Those hardliners included Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue and Republican Reps. Bob Goodlatte, Kevin McCarthy and Mario Diaz-Balart were also at the Trump meeting on Thursday.

So - from the get-go -- the meeting was stacked to set up a rejection of any compromise putting into jeopardy the ability for Congress to meet the Jan. 19 deadline for reaching agreement on government spending. Many Democrats insist that action on DACA must be met before they agree to a budget.

As Durbin explained the "Gang of Six" compromise and reached the part about extending protections for refugees from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti, Trump then interjected his now infamous remarks.

"Why do we want all these people from 'shithole countries' coming here?" Trump told senators in the Oval Office. Those remarks blew up any further discussion on the DACA compromise.

RELATED:

• Trump ties DACA to the Wall
• Judge temporarily blocks DACA's demise

The Gang of Six's proposal included a path to citizenship for all Dreamers -- not just those who put their trust in government by enrolling in DACA, thus putting them at risk of deportation under the current administration.

In addition, they proposed a down payment of the $1.6 billion requested by the administration this year on border security, limits to the ability of recipients to sponsor family members and an end to the diversity lottery and reallocation of those visas in part to cover people who were under Temporary Protected Status, according to CNN.

Cotton, Perdue, Goodlatte and McCarthy pushed back at the Durbin and Graham proposal.

"I'm not sure what the next step will be," Durbin told reporters. "The President invited us to -- at his little get-together in the Cabinet room -- to come up with proposals, and we did. It's a bipartisan proposal which we've worked on for four months in the Senate, and I don't know what happens next."

Asked what it would take to bring something to the floor -- Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said any deal would have to hit the four items identified by Trump in an earlier meeting on Jan. 10. Besides a fix for DACA, the compromise should include border security (aka The Wall), something to curtail "chain migration" or family-based migration, and ending the diversity lottery -- and be "something that the President would sign."

In a joint statement after the disturbing Oval Office meeting, the Gang of Six senators noted their deal hit those four points and pledged to work to seek support from colleagues, without acknowledging the setback.

The reaction from the AAPI community strongly condemned Trump's vulgar comments:

“The President’s words were simply racist, repugnant, and reprehensible, and they have no place in our political discourse," said Vanita Gupta, who served as the Obama Justice Department’s top civil rights official and now heads The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.  "Congress must prove that America’s founding values and principles are more than words by repudiating the President’s disgusting remarks and passing bipartisan legislation now to protect Dreamers and families covered by Temporary Protected Status.”

Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) released the following statement condemning President Trump’s racist comments:

“The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus strongly condemns President Trump’s reprehensible statement about immigrants from African and other countries. It is racist and reveals his thinking that he would like to ‘Make America White Again.’ President Trump would like to take this country backward and end immigration as we know it.

“With his statement, it is now clear why President Trump has moved to end the DACA program, decimate legal immigration, and to end the Temporary Protected Status of countries.

“CAPAC believes strongly that the most urgent business at hand is to pass a clean DREAM Act. We must protect the lives of the 800,000 young people who fear deportation to a country they do not even know, and who not only come from Mexico, but also South Korea, the Philippines, India and many other countries from around the world. We also believe, however that, such a solution should not be done on the back of our family-based immigration system.

“We are deeply disturbed that the President of the United States made racist and white supremacist comments regarding immigrants from Africa and Haiti. Our nation’s strength is rooted in its global diversity and our nation’s leaders should celebrate – and not demonize – immigrants," said a statement from Asian Americans Advancing Justice. 

"While we condemn the President’s racism, we also call on our Congressional members to not fall for this latest distraction. Congress must focus on passing a clean Dream Act that does not come at the expense of our long-standing family-based immigration system and diversity visa program.”

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