MSNBC’s Joy Reid urged Black voters to do their "own research" into the GOP and former President Trump following entertainer Amber Rose’s address at the Republican National Convention (RNC) Monday evening.
“I don't know anyone who takes their political cues from Amber Rose, but just in case you do, you might want to duplicate doing your own research, because she might not have done it thoroughly,” Reid said following Rose’s speech.
The former reality TV star hit the RNC stage in Milwaukee, Wisc., on the first night of the convention to give an impassioned endorsement of former President Trump.
“I’m no politician and I don’t wanna be, but I do care about the truth, and the truth is that the media has lied to us about Donald Trump,” Rose said. “I know this because for a long time, I believed those lies … I believed the left-wing propaganda that Donald Trump was a racist.”
The support is a major turn from her comments in 2016, when Rose called Trump an idiot and “so weird.”
But on Monday, she said her perspective began to change when she started doing her own research and meeting Trump’s “red hat-wearing supporters.”
“I realized Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay or straight. It’s all love,” Rose said. “And that’s when it hit me: These are my people. This is where I belong.”
Trump has been hoping to build upon his 2020 success with Black voters, when he gained about 12 percent of their support.
This year, he has tried to use prominent Black leaders such as Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and celebrities including young rapper Sexxy Red to recruit Black voters.
While some, like CNN commentator Van Jones, seemed to think Rose’s words may resonate, Reid said she is “dubious” that Rose’s endorsement will speak to Black voters, in part because Rose appears racially ambiguous and has previously been accused of trying to downplay her Blackness.
Rose, whose father is white and whose mother is Black, has previously said she does not consider herself a Black woman. Rose later said she was not denying her Blackness but instead identifying herself as a mixed-race person.
“They brought somebody whose whole career is based on Black culture — she used to be on a show on BET, that's the reason most people know who she is, she dated one of the most prominent African American rappers in the business, in the history of hip hop — so her whole culture came from Black culture, even though she says she's not a Black person herself,” said Reid.
“The fact that she is now the person they're using to try to recruit young people of color, and to say that this is the person who is the endorser of Donald Trump when she won't even claim the culture that brought her to the table, I'm dubious that this will work,” Reid concluded.
