ONEONTA, NY (WSKG) - A Republican candidate for Congress in New York’s 19th District is defending President Trump against charges of racism.
The 19th District includes parts of the Southern Tier and Hudson Valley.
Ola Hawatmeh is the co-founder of the pro-Trump Middle Eastern Women’s Coalition. She’s the daughter of Jordanian immigrants.
Hawatmeh said she’s been to Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago and observed that the majority of Trump’s private-company employees are people of color. “The waitresses, the waiters, the elevator, bussers; they're are all minorities," she continued. "So I say no. He is absolutely not a racist.”
Hawatmeh supports construction of the president’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump has denied allegations of racial bias, but Politico reports of the 55 highest-paid White House staffers only a half-dozen are not white and the AP reports the Trump Organization has few black executives.
Ulster County resident Mike Roth is also seeking the Republican nomination. First-term Democrat Antonio Delgado currently represents the 19th District.