According to The Political Insider, Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) claimed that refusing to rent to someone due to their criminal record is a form of racism “because of widespread racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system.” [3] About 25 percent of Americans have some kind of criminal record, which can range from felony convictions to arrests that never led to charges. As HUD correctly notes, criminal history is not equally distributed across racial groups. For instance, while blacks are about 12 percent of the U.S. population, they are about 36 percent of the prison population. Hispanics are also overrepresented behind bars, though to a much smaller degree. [5]
However, Rush believes, “what it’s really all about is seizing your property.” Here’s what Rush had to say:
Hey, if you can tell a landlord that he’s gotta rent to a criminal — by the way, you know what that’s really all about, folks? It’s never just about what it seems. It’s not about evening the racial score. You know what this is really all about? You have a landlord that refuses to rent to a criminal, Obama says, “No, no, no, you have to because our racial justice system’s been so unbalanced, you’re guilty of racism when you refuse to rent,” you know what that’s really all about is seizing your property. What do you think the penalty’s gonna be to the landlords that fail to follow Obama’s dictates and rent rooms to criminals. You don’t think they’re gonna be able to come in and make the play for your land, for your property, absconding it, claiming that you are misusing it or what have you? And one thing about authoritarian figures, private this, private that, they don’t like anything private. Private property, private guns, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The more they can take away from you, including your private this or your free speech or what have you. This is who these people are, folks. Don’t blame me. This is who they are. [2]
