In an effort to "prove" President Trump isn't a racist, his defenders keep pointing to the fact that, in 1986, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor along with Rosa Parks.

Well, about that....

First of all, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor was something that was hastily created that same year, in reaction to complaints about a previous award ceremony -- the Liberty Awards, which you can read about here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/06/28/the-great-liberty-awards-uproar/975c0b0e-b0b1-46d0-b60b-1270768dbe89/?utm_term=.382496c8bbc5

As part of the celebrations for the centennial of the Statue of Liberty, twelve naturalized American citizens were singled out for recognition (names below).

Immediately, though, people complained that the list of honorees didn't accurately reflect the true diversity of America's population.

So, as a result, a new committee headed by NYC real estate developer William Fugazy, took it upon itself to create a bigger list of awards.

And the list was huge. Though Trump's defenders keep singling out Trump and Rosa Parks as co-winners of the award, there were in fact EIGHTY different recipients that year, from a wide range of ethnic and racial backgrounds.

And more important, the award had *nothing* to do with celebrating individuals who had done anything positive in the realm of civil rights or race relations.

It merely sought to honor Americans from different backgrounds who had succeeded in their chosen field.

Rosa Parks was honored for her achievements as an African-American civil rights activist.

But Donald Trump was honored for being a real estate developer of German descent. Period.

To suggest -- as @TheBrodyFile did on "Meet the Press" this morning -- that Trump can't a racist because, 32 years ago, he won this award and Rosa Parks won it too is absolutely laughable.

It's a shame @chucktodd didn't follow up on this but let that bizarre assertion stand.

I've checked the @MeetThePress transcript. It's even worse than I'd thought.

As you can see, @TheBrodyFile calls it an award "for diversity and tolerance."

Again, that's flatly untrue. The award honored individuals for their achievements in their own chosen field.

And yes, as you can see in the transcript, Brody threw out this clumsy, easily-disproven lie in an effort to claim that Trump's supporters had good reason to distrust the rest of the media for not telling the truth.

The "truth" about an award for diversity that doesn't exist.

As a follow up, the committee that chose the recipients of the 1986 Ellis Island Medal of Honor said these were the criteria.

As you can see, their honorees were NOT selected for their work promoting diversity.

(image from Louisville Courier Journal 10/17/86)

A few more bits of evidence here -- including a great Joe DiMaggio quote and one of Trump's fellow honorees turning out to be a convicted bank robber who was deemed too crooked to work at a casino in Las Vegas. https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1029568263636832256