During a Friday night speech in Columbia, South Carolina, Donald Trump offered some reasons why he believes that Black voters should support him. Trump, discussing the fact that he is facing four criminal indictments, argued that his legal problems should make him appealing to Black voters.
Trump told the crowd, "The mug shot, we've all seen the mugshot. And you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population. It's incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mugshot."
The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, who is Black, slammed Trump's comments as "cringeworthy, cynical, infuriating, insulting, racist, super-racist" in his Monday column. And some more scathing criticism came from former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele the next morning.
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During an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Steele — who was the first African-American to chair the RNC — told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski and guest Robinson, "With Trump, there is nothing there substantively because of his own history that would tell me that I would have something to gain with him.
“And that's been proven time and time again as you listen to him talk to Black people as if they're not there. When I hear him say 'the Black people,' it reminds me of some 1950s redneck who is referring to them, other, even though they're in the room."
Steele, a Never Trump conservative who supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and is supporting him again this year, attacked Trump's comments as "pandering BS" and added that the former president "thinks so little of the Black community that he (thinks he) can get our vote with, you know, giving us greater access to menthol cigarettes and a nice pair of gold lamé sneakers."
The former RNC chairman added that Trump's insulting "narrative" to Black voters is, "I'm so happy you wear my mugshot on your t-shirt because you can identify with me because most of you are in the criminal justice system" — adding, "Nothing about health disparities in Black neighborhoods. Nothing about the education disparities in Black neighborhoods. Nothing about the mortality rate among Black women and babies. Nothing about fair housing."
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