Local GOP Chair Don Yelton, Who Commented on 'Lazy Black People' on 'The Daily Show,' Resigns
Don Yelton, a North Carolina county precinct GOP chair, resigned from his position on Thursday after he was reported using the N-word and saying "lazy black people" want "the government to give them everything" in an interview which aired on "The Daily Show" Wednesday.
In the interview conducted by correspondent Aasif Mandvi, Yelton discussed North Carolina's restrictive new voting law which the Justice Department is challenging in a lawsuit.
According to an NPR report, the lawsuit challenges provisions in the new law passed soon after the Supreme Court invalidated a major part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in June. It takes issue with provisions that limit early voting periods and argues that requiring a government photo ID is an illegal form of discrimination against minorities in voting.
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During his discussion of the law with Mandvi, however, Yelton used the N-word and made remarks which have been dismissed as racists.
"The law is going to kick the Democrats in the butt," Yelton said in the interview. "If it hurts a bunch of college kids too lazy to get up off their bohonkas and go get a photo ID, so be it. If it hurts the whites, so be it."
"If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, so be it," he noted.
As the backlash over his comments grew, however, Yelton was forced to resign from his position with the GOP and he did it colorfully.
"I resign my position as precinct chair. Gladly. I'll give it up. To heck with it, I don't want to be part of a group that is that mealy-mouthed and that gutless," he said in an interview on Asheville radio station WWNC.
He went on further in that interview to decry political correctness and dismissed the idea that he was hurting the GOP's campaign to appeal to a wider audience.
"They're a bunch of chickens," he said regarding Republicans who disagreed with his approach. "I'm embarrassed for the fact that they don't stand up and fight for what's right."
Despite his statements in "The Daily Show" interview, he maintains that he is not a racist.
"I am not racist, never have been, and the ability of the local people and the media and the outlets to twist this into a racist issue shows exactly how willing the people are to be taken advantage of," he said.
A statement released by the Buncombe County Republican Party dismissed Yelton's comments on the show as "offensive, uninformed and unacceptable" and they were not representative of the local or state Republican Party.
"Let me make it very clear, Mr. Yelton's comments do not reflect the belief or feelings of Buncombe Republicans, nor do they mirror any core principle that our party is founded upon" said Chairman Henry Mitchell. "This mentality will not be supported or propagated within our party".
