Talking about the GOP primaries on MSNBC's Politics Nation on January 9, 2012, ex-CNN congressional correspondent Bob Franken unleashed a tirade against mainstream conservatives, branding them as racists plotting a return to Jim Crow.
Referring to the presidential candidates' campaign rhetoric, Franken foamed: “These seem to be appeals to the extreme white wing of the Republican Party. That is to say that there continues to be among many conservatives a real resentment against blacks....I think it is part of a hateful campaign that is being very methodically run in the hope it’s going to appeal to voters who would love to see us return to the good old days of Jim Crow.”