At a rally in Dimondale, Michigan on Friday, Donald Trump said he could secure the black vote, and some of his supporters believe he can do so. But a number of critics are questioning his supporter’s confidence.
Trump’s main selling point to black voters is that the political system has failed them, and it is time for a change. It’s not too different from what he has been saying thus far, but he made a slight tweak to his message:
“You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs. Fifty-eight percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose? And at the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you. Because I will produce.”
He went on to say that Hillary Clinton has harmed the African-American community, and he can promise a much better future, as long as they vote for him. Trump’s speech Friday was part scripted and ad-libbed, which seems to be what he is doing since his campaign team got a bit of a makeover. His supporters believe he can secure the majority of the African-American vote but some questioned this claim.
Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany appeared on CNN with African American panelists Bakari Sellers and Angela Rye. McEnany explained how Trump “was on the cutting edge of civil rights.” Her reasoning? He let in black and Jewish people into one of his clubs in Florida. She continued to justify her statements by saying, “You might think a 27.2% poverty rate among African American individuals … is a good thing but–” Then Rye interjected and said no one said this and wanted the statement retracted. Rye said Trump can first start with retracting some of the harmful statements he has said thus far:
“He can apologize for the howling discrimination for the Department of Justice and he can retract that and apologize for that and he can tell me he never meant to say he’d pay for the legal fees of the guy that punched the black man in the face at the rally. And he can apologize for the Indian man thrown out today. He can apologize for the full-page ad. I am just getting started.”
It was a heated panel with both of them talking over each other. Not an unfamiliar sight during an election season.