The Twitterverse has reacted in revulsion to Donald Trump’s insulting pitch to African Americans – made before a white crowd – asking, “What the hell do you have to lose?” by voting for him. But not Dr. Ben Carson!
Raw Story explains what was wrong with Trump’s so-called appeal:
Friday night in Michigan, Trump himself attempted to rustle up some black votes — albeit in front of a predominately white audience — only to further inflame black sentiment against him with a cynical and condescending pitch that implied that all African-Americans live in abject poverty and whose lives could not get any worse.
“Look at how much African-American communities are suffering from Democratic control. To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?” Trump shouted at a crowd of his supporters. “You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose?”
As noted by Philip Bump of the Washington Post, Trump’s appeal insults the millions of black voters who don’t live in poverty and who are well-informed enough to reject a Republican Party that is considered anti-minority — going so far as to attempt to suppress the back vote with onerous voter ID laws such as seen in North Carolina.
Trump’s insulting remarks are not going down so well on Twitter, where the hashtag #WhatDoWeHaveToLose began trending in mockery.
All that was almost entirely ignored by host and apparent Trump fan, Uma Pemmaraju. But even she noted that “critics pounced” on Trump, “saying that those remarks were made before a largely white audience.”
As she spoke, the lower third read, “Trump predicts he can win 95% of black vote in White House bid.” Right now, only 1% of African Americans support him.
But for Carson, there was nothing not to love. “The important thing is, he’s starting to reach out,” Carson said about Trump, as if the campaign were just beginning and not going into its final stretch.
“Why should they believe someone like Donald Trump right now?” a surprisingly challenging Pemmaraju asked. She also wanted to know if Carson expects Trump to take his message “directly into the inner cities” and “drive it home.”
“Without question,” Carson assured her. “He’s not like your traditional politician. All they do is they pander and they promise.”
The fact is, Trump doesn’t seem to have even gone that far.
Even worse, Trump just hired an “Alt-White” guy, Stephen Bannon, to run his campaign.
Not surprisingly, Pemmaraju didn’t bring up Bannon.
Instead, Carson talked about how liberals want to “redivide” or “redistribute” the "pie" whereas what Trump is “talking about is making a lot of pies.”
Crossposted at newshounds.us
