Yale psychiatrist: When Trump calls himself ‘the least racist person,’ ‘he tells me that he is surely the most racist person’

A Yale University professor and forensic psychiatrist gave a rather peculiar analysis Monday of why she deems President Donald Trump racist.

Dr. Bandy X. Lee, whose Yale faculty bio describes her as an “internationally recognized expert on violence,” made the comments in an interview with Raw Story, adding on to ones she made to the outlet on Wednesday.

“Surely [Trump] is racist, but that is not all,” Lee told Raw Story. “When he says, ‘I am the least racist person you have ever met,’ he tells me that he is surely the most racist person I have ever met.” 

“In psychiatry, we are trained not simply to believe a person’s words at face value but to evaluate the person’s reliability, whether there are consistent patterns of defense, and whether it is the person or the disease that is speaking, before we believe.”

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The Yale professor proceeded to list “evidence” of Trump’s racism, such as his father’s arrest at a KKK march, FBI’s investigation of Trump and his father for racist rental practices, and the president’s push for the death penalty for the Central Park Five.

Lee’s comments came after a tweet in which Trump suggested that four congresswomen, one of whom was not born in the U.S., “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

“Some who hold racist views may still be capable of empathy, or act out of loyalty—and they can be educated or redirected,” Lee continued. “Mr. Trump lacks this capacity and will likely be recalcitrant. And if other channels are open, he will probably direct his anger and envy there, too—against critics, women, children, disabled persons, or any other representation of his feelings of inferiority and unbelonging.”

The professor ascribed “pathological racism,” or the transformation of “racism into reason,” as the force animating those defending the president from allegations of racism.

Lee made these remarks after previously telling Raw Story that Trump “is deteriorating rapidly. He attacks as a maladaptive means of coping with stress, and he won’t stop.”

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In a June interview with Salon, Lee suggested that Trump “be immediately contained and certain powers are taken away from him,” calling for the president to have his powers pertaining to waging war and controlling nuclear weapons revoked.

Lee is the author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. She is also co-author of a Boston Globe piece  “Looking at the Mueller report from a mental health perspective”. 

On Tuesday, Bandy Lee will be speaking at an online town hall, which will pose five questions to Robert Mueller regarding Trump’s mental health.

Lee characterized the town hall’s examination of Trump as “capacity examination,” not a “diagnostic examination,” while speaking with Campus Reform. 

“Medical records are irrelevant...what is most helpful is exactly what was contained in the special counsel’s report: external observations by close associates, both allies and opponents, while at work,” she said.

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Campus Reform reached out to the Yale Federalist Society and Yale College Democrats but neither group responded in time for publication. 

Campus Reform also reached out to Yale Democratic Socialists, but the group declined to comment.

Follow the authors of this article on Twitter: @GenSanchezz and @ShimshockAndAwe