Donald Trump is under fire again for making racially incendiary comments — this time suggesting that Black Americans can relate to him because he “got indicted for nothing.”
“A lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against,” Trump told a group of Black conservatives in South Carolina last week.
More inane verbal elephant dung from the former occupant of the White House, who has four-score and 11-indictments. Trump now says Black voters like him because they empathize with his criminal charges.
Where is his proof?
Is it from the Black male character witnesses who sat on the stage when he spewed this claim? U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, former point man for criminal justice reform who got little-to-nothing done because he was knee-capped by the senior senator from his state, Lindsay Graham, aka Trump sycophant? Or Ben Carson, M.D., the skilled surgeon I’d trust my life with, but would never, ever put in charge of anything involving government policy based on his record as a Trump cabinet-level buffoon?
“The audacity of Donald Trump to speak to a room full of Black voters during Black History Month as if he isn’t the proud poster boy for modern racism,” said Jasmine Harris, spokeswoman for President Biden’s reelection campaign. “This is the same man who falsely accused the Central Park 5, questioned George Floyd’s humanity, compared his own impeachment trial to being lynched, and ensured the unemployment gap for Black workers spiked during his presidency.”
But back to Trump’s assertion that Black voters dig him because he’s been allegedly targeted by authorities. In the 2020 election when No. 45 almost scored the first authoritarian coup in U.S. history, Trump did receive 18% Black male support. As one man told Black writer David J. Dent: Yes, Trump is a racist, and he talks loud about stuff he doesn’t know about. But he has money, and I want to get on his bandwagon.
Meanwhile, 82% of Black women rejected Trump, like the women who spoke to my Morgan State University student reporters and generally said, we’re running to the polls to vote and protect our children and ourselves from that Trumpster fire.
Less emotionally, here are the clear-eyed poll numbers: Black voters prefer Biden to Trump 79% to 19% according to this month’s Quinnipiac poll. During the 2020 presidential election, Black voters supported Biden over Trump by a wider margin, 87% to 12%.
That was before Joe the gaffe machine had to do the hard, messy job of governing. He’s faced tough choices, like supporting Israel’s right to defend itself while stoking the ire of Middle Eastern Americans and young, leftist Black Americans. Biden has triumphed in facilitating results [student loan forgiveness, infrastructure] despite a hostile majority of Congress that wants to stymie him. Then there is insider-turned-outsider Trump who has ordered those congressional haters to not negotiate with the president because, heaven forbid, they cooperate and help the entire American public before November.
RELATED: More by BNV contributor Wayne Dawkins
This past weekend former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s remaining GOP challenger, lost to No. 45 in her home state. Humiliating? Maybe not. The score was Trump 60%, Haley 40%.
Though bruised, Haley vowed to hang on at least until Super Tuesday March 5, when 16 states and a gold mine of delegates will be in play.
Haley should go for it. Trump’s overwhelming support appears to be built on a foundation of sand — as credible as those $400 golden basketball shoes Trump promised to deliver to paying customers. Many Americans, according to multiple polls, say they are not happy about the probable November choice between two very old men who both, at times, appear cognitively challenged.
Let’s say Haley emerges as the Republican nominee because Trump succumbs to the overwhelming legal load – trials in Florida, Georgia, Washington, D.C., and New York – that bury him. Imagine Haley makes history and wins. I’d bet that most Democrats would be unhappy, but relieved.
It’s one thing to disagree with the politics and policymaking of an incoming leader. It is another to suffer an unstable wannabe autocrat who promises to destroy our republic and democracy.
