HELENVILLE, Wis. (AP) Bill Brasch greeted President Donald Trumps latest tweet controversy with a shrug.
He doesnt believe Trump was being racist for telling four congresswomen, all women of color, to go back to the countries they came from. It doesnt matter much that all four of the women are American citizens, Brasch said the uproar over Trumps tweet is a distraction and his detractors are just playing politics.
I look at what hes accomplished and not what he says, the 58-year-old said during a lunch break at the Wingin It bar in this pocket of rural Wisconsin.
Far to the southeast, Maria Masferrer saw Trumps attack as totally out of place. The 20-year-old college student at Florida International University in Miami is a new citizen. Trumps rhetoric was personal and disqualifying.
Why would I vote for someone that wants to kick me out? she said.
Across the country, in states critical to Trumps reelection, the reaction to Trumps racist tweets exposed two vastly different views on race politics in America. In interviews with nearly 50 voters across seven states, many people most of them Democrats found Trumps willingness to lodge racial attacks appalling and unforgiveable. For many others, particularly Trump voters, the tweets were a mere sideshow.
Trump voters who spoke to The Associated Press were a mixture of indifferent, bemused and mildly irritated, saying it comes with the territory in the unconventional Trump presidency. They voiced appreciation for his candor and ability to speak plainly while rejecting that he is a racist. His views on race were not what mattered most to many of them.
Hes not perfect, for sure. And there are certain things that you dont like, that I dont like, said Yanire Kruiniger, who emigrated from Peru and became a U.S. citizen a dozen years ago. She now lives in Nevada, a state Trump lost in 2016 and is hoping to win next year. Trump had Kruinigers vote then, and now.
You know, we took a chance, Kruiniger, 53, said from a mall outside Las Vegas, adding that she thinks it paid off, especially because the economy is doing well.
The conversations with voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Arizona and Nevada reflected larger debates roiling both parties. Democrats vying to take on Trump have been clashing over race issues digging into fights over busing and school desegregation, criminal justice reform and reparations a reflection of the partys reliance on minority, progressive and young voters.
Republicans, meanwhile, have been largely hoping the strong economy matters more to voters, particularly women and suburban voters, than the personality in the White House.
Braeden Howard might give Republicans hope.
The 38-year-old in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, voted for Trump in 2016 as a total wild card and describes himself as open-minded on how to vote in 2020.
He says hes long viewed Trump as divisive, going back to Trumps very first campaign speech when he disparaged Mexican immigrants. Still, Howard isnt sure whether the tweet was racist: The term itself gets thrown around so loosely, he said, and theres so much outrage on both sides.
The tweet doesnt change whether hell vote for Trump again.
Time will tell. If the economy is good, I probably will, Howard said Tuesday while overseeing a historical preservation project on a Civil War monument in the Democratic college town in conservative central Pennsylvania. If people are lined up in the streets and unemployed, Ill probably change my mind.
In suburban Columbus, Ohio, several voters interviewed were less interested in the content of the tweet than their shared wish that the sooner Trump can stop tweeting, the better.
