Posted on 07/12/2026 7:41:05 AM PDT by Libloather
William Lawrence, a progressive running in the Democratic primary for the U.S. House in Michigan, is responding to backlash over his previous criticism of Black political leaders.
The Huffington Post on Saturday published Lawrence’s comments from a 2024 episode of his podcast, in which the Democrat accused some Black lawmakers of being “a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power.”
“It’s a big problem for left politics in this country, and it gets us every single time,” Lawrence said in the episode. “It really defangs the white left and puts us in impossible positions, really.”
The Democratic candidate addressed this comment in a social media statement on Saturday, saying his words were “taken out of context.”
“The way I made this point was clumsy, and I regret my choice of words,” he said. “I understand the potential impact when received out of context. The way the story is being reported does not reflect my beliefs.”
He noted that this comment was made during a conversation with a Black anti-war organizer in reaction to Democratic leaders’ support for aid to Israel during the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Lawrence has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and other Democratic lawmakers.
The Congressional Black Caucus’s PAC weighed in on the controversy Saturday evening, declaring in a social media post that “Anyone supporting William Lawrence (@WeWill2026) should denounce his hateful remarks and withdraw their support.”
Lawrence is running in the Democratic primary against Matt Maasdam, a former Navy SEAL endorsed by several local unions, and Bridget Brink, the former Ambassador to Ukraine under President Biden.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
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“It’s a big problem for left politics in this country, and it gets us every single time,” Lawrence said in the episode. “It really defangs the white left and puts us in impossible positions, really.” I’m not very worried about that Lawrence.
Two-faced Democrat candidate Lawrence accused some Black lawmakers of being “a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power,” now says his words were “taken out of context.” Says his comments were made wrt Democrats’ support for “aid to Israel.”
Send him money and hope he gets nominated. 7th district in Michigan. Our guy beat a democrat-pick up. Let the nuts thrive until November.
I know a couple of republicans who are registered democrats-gives them more control. Are we that smart?
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Being a Democrat and a Nazi, no problem.
Being a Democrat and an abuser of women, a bit of a problem.
So where does a white Democrat criticizing black Democrats lie on the spectrum?
...“taken out of context.” Should be the democrat campaign slogan.
lol.....so true
Typical racist Democrat spewing commie trash crappola. Why the surprise? He is a member of a hate group and does not like it when his intended slaves actually use their minds instead of staying in “their place”.
Bulworth moment or perhaps Sister Soulja.
Leftists & Progressives always go after anyone who criticizes one of their pet minority groups. Now it’s biting them, finally.
Anyone who says something like this: “establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power” is a kook.
Just my opinion.
” Black lawmakers of being “a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power. ”
Everything but the ‘uncle’ and the ‘Tom’.
looks creepy.
I.O.W. far left extremist. Where are the perv files?
Now there’s a guy that looks sketchy very sketchy......
Is he constantly fiddling with his phone?
Forget about what this guy said…..he is a mush-mouth spouting intellectual psychobabble.
https://convergencemag.com/podcast/black-internationalism-with-khury-petersen-smith/
[00:37:16] And so that is something for us to grapple with, actually, like recognizing that it’s not just that we recognize the significance of The kind of political and moral, if you will, significance or the political significance of the moral authority, and credibility of the black freedom struggle, especially that we recognize that it’s like power recognizes that Biden recognizes that the White House recognizes that and therefore that is a contested space that we need to show up to,
[00:37:40] William Lawrence: How do you feel?
[00:37:41] What do you think is the trajectory as a millennial you? black leftist. It’s not something I can talk too much about because I’m white and it’s not my, it’s not my struggle. That being said, like the extent to which the older generation of black political leadership are such a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist, American, and.
[00:38:09] power through their role, as this kind of a traditionalist establishmentist pillar of the democratic party. It’s a big problem. It’s a big problem for left politics in this country. And and it gets us every single time. And it really defangs the white left puts and puts us in, impossible positions, really.
[00:38:32] It’s very effective politically. And I don’t know, I’m curious, but we’re also seeing, now that Unfortunately, don’t want anyone to vote for Trump, but like young black people are falling away from the Democratic Party and the support is not showing up in the same way. We’ll see what happens in November.
[00:38:47] I’m curious where you think this is headed and what the younger black left needs to do in order to change this dynamic.
[00:38:59] Khury-Petersen Smith: Yeah, totally. And what, just to start again with a kind of internationalist answer of a kind is this is a question that it’s faced in different places around the world where like the cent, the centrist parties and the kind and some center left parties have just failed, have failed to I shouldn’t say fail they’ve been quite successful when it comes to their role in administering the world that we live in, which has been pretty disastrous, but they’re failing in terms of speaking to generations of people, particularly young people.
…..
[00:40:52] That said you’re raising a really sharp question, which is, the, there’s the role that a small, but very visible section of black America has found its niche within you’ve got like Eric Adams running New York City, which is wild for many reasons. But yeah, what does it mean when that’s the black mayor who is absolutely the vehicle for some of the most horrific expansion of policing and surveillance.
[00:41:24] He is a conduit and a voice for a kind of democratic party version of the anti immigrant politics. It’s a disaster. So that’s a reality. And then there’s this, the question of the kind of traditional or legacy organizations of the Civil Rights movement, which and there has been, there’s less of a conversation about it now
Actually, most of them are corrupt as hell and see everything through a race lens.
I think it’s a fairly commonly held one
Obviously we should all support the raging nutbag leftist if he is the weakest of the 3 nutbag leftists candidates running in the *highly* vulnerable (PVI of D+2) Michigan 7th congressional districtt currently held by freshman Republican Tom Barrett.
No matter who wins the Rat primary, there will be other far-leftists on the ballot in November: a Green weenie, a “Working Class” radical labor unionist, and a a total lunatic “independent” activist.
They might combine for just barely enough of the vote to let Barrett squeak through to a second term. The GOP could easily lose 2 more House seats in Michigan in 2026 (CD-10 and perhaps CD-4), so the hope must be that an unpopular racist Muzzie is at the top of the ballot as the Democrat Senate candidate.
And even that is no guarantee of a positive outcome, in that race or any other in Michigan. Remember who counts the votes there.
He is running as a Dem, so it doesn’t matter what he says or does even if he is a Nazi rapist.
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