John McCain Calling Iran's President a "Monkey": Is It Racist?

Matthew Hendley February 5, 2013 6:00AM

The safe bet is to never call anyone a "monkey" in any context.

Senator John McCain didn't play it safe yesterday, when he described Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as one.

See also:
-John McCain Calls Iran's President a "Monkey," Says to "Lighten Up" If You Think It's Racist

Here's the "tweet" in question, which sparked the accusations of racism:

So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space - wasn't he just there last week? "Iran launches monkey into space" news.yahoo.com/iran-launches-...
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 4, 2013

McCain "tweeted" that he was simply making a joke, but not everyone was buying it. This morning's question: is it racist?

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Matthew Hendley

Contact: Matthew Hendley