When I was a wee lad, first starting out in radio, a couple of comms guys for then-U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, reached out to me, wanting to chat about politics, coverage, etc. During our conversation, we got around to discussing how divisive political rhetoric had become at the time. 

For the record, this was 2009.

These comms guys were insistent that the problem was Republicans, and how they had so masterfully utilized short, simple name-calling to tear down opponents (i.e. "socialist" and "communist"). Completely missing from their perspective on political rhetoric, which I did not bring up, was how quickly and easily Democrats take to calling Republicans "racist" and other such names.

The media is also very quick to do it. It's very easy to just throw the word "racist" into an article about any Republican. Not because anything any Republican says is racist, but because many of the reporters who report on what Republicans say or do have just internalized that they are, and they try to draw whatever connections they can to make it work. In their mind, the conclusion is always that Republicans are motivated by their hatred of non-whites, and therefore they need to create the evidence that justifies that conclusion.

In a recent article from the Associated Press, a couple of reporters are accusing Donald Trump of using “racist tropes” by calling Kamala Harris “lazy”, exposing yet again the media’s knee-jerk bias against him and their propensity to rely on name-calling rather than factual evidence. Instead of engaging with Trump’s substantive criticisms, the AP jumps to the tired narrative of racism. 

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump unleashed a series of personal attacks at Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her “lazy” — a word long used to demean Black people in racist terms — and repeatedly questioning her intelligence and stamina.

At an event Tuesday in Miami aimed at courting Latino voters, Trump said he said Harris was “lazy as hell” for not holding a campaign event. Trump’s comments ignored that Harris spent her day in meetings in Washington and recording interviews with Telemundo and NBC. He referred to the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket as “slow” and having a “low IQ.”

Later in the day during a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, he called Harris a “stupid person” and went on to ask: “Does she drink? Is she on drugs?”

The fact that Trump has previously used the same language against opponents like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton—who are not Black—doesn’t seem to matter. In the AP’s world, criticizing Harris becomes racism by default because she happens to be a woman of color.

The article’s suggestion that calling someone “lazy” is inherently racist relies on a flimsy and cheap argument. Criticizing public figures for lacking work ethic or energy is hardly new. Trump infamously labeled Biden as campaigning “from his basement” and mocked Jeb Bush as “low energy.” This isn’t some sinister dog whistle—it’s part of Trump’s bombastic and insult-driven style, which he applies indiscriminately. But the AP chooses to frame it differently for Harris, crafting a narrative that reinforces the very bias they claim to stand against.

They even admit in the story that Trump has used the same framing against Biden and Clinton.

The former president has questioned the work ethic of various opponents throughout his career. He accused President Joe Biden in 2020 of campaigning from his basement, even as Trump continued to hold large events during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2016 routinely called Democrat Hillary Clinton physically weak and low-energy. He also accused both of being under the influence of drugs.

The remainder of the article is spent calling up past attacks on Trump's alleged racism. What it doesn't do is explore why Trump is using that particular language against Harris, because it's much easier to say it's coming from a place of racism than to point out that Harris has been largely MIA on the campaign trail, especially in the swing states - all of which she is now underwater in, according to the polling averages at RealClearPolitics.

Trump has attacked Harris on this multiple times - including in the wake of her skipping the Al Smith dinner last week. It's not racism, it's just factual: She isn't doing events. Whether it's fear or laziness, she simply isn't.