Trump to blacks: "What do you have to lose? You're living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs." pic.twitter.com/LCWDwIf5Ju
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 19, 2016
This wasn't in the prepared remarks. So as for "who thought this was a good idea?" the answer is: Donald Trump. https://t.co/uH1nUqZ9Pa
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) August 19, 2016
Apparently it has been discovered that some people, despite Trump’s explicit appeal to “my African-American,” do not realize voting for Deadbeat Don is their last chance at the lottery ticket to a better life. (His new campaign manager, after all, runs a site well known for being not at all hostile to people of color.) The Washington Post dissects Trump’s latest appeal to African-Americans with far more seriousness than it actually deserves — “It’s hard to imagine a much worse pitch Donald Trump could have made for the black vote”:
… Consider: Black Americans are not “living in poverty” as a general rule. A quarter of the black population is, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, about the same as the percentage of Hispanics. In Michigan, the figure is slightly higher. Most black Americans don’t live in poverty, just as most white Americans don’t.
Consider: The unemployment rate in the black community is higher than that in the white community, as it has been since the Department of Labor started keeping track. Among young blacks, though, the figure is not 59 percent — unless (as PolitiFact noted) you consider not the labor force but every young black American, including high school students…
Consider: Black voters are perfectly able to evaluate candidates on qualities other than their political parties. Black voters began supporting the Democratic Party heavily thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since then, they have consistently voted for the party — a party that is one-fifth black and which since 1964 has elected the vast majority of the black members of Congress…. Democrats win the support of black voters consistently because those voters like the work that they do and like the fights that they fight…
Apart from {facepalm} x n, what’s on the agenda for the end of the weekend?
TRUMP: "Whites: I'm addressing blacks but am really talking to you. Look how nice I talk about blacks, whites! Not racist! Join me, whites"
— Owen Ellickson (@onlxn) August 19, 2016
Weird timing to hand your campaign to the head of a white nationalist website during African-American outreach week https://t.co/xJFkhjuB2t
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) August 19, 2016
"Hey, I'm a racist
And you're all lazy
But now I'm desperate
So vote me maybe" https://t.co/enzKM6wawg— chrisberez (@chrisberez) August 20, 2016
Open Thread: Trump Berates African-American VotersPost + Comments (210)