You can’t make this stuff up.
While at a rally in Redding, California, Donald Trump wanted to generate support from minorities by pointing out a black man and calling him “my African-American.”
Seriously. The full quote:
“Oh, look at my African-American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest?”
No, I am not kidding. Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqpNWaG6iaA
Awkward.
Trump’s campaign immediately sprang into damage control mode, of course. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said that “just referring to a supporter in the crowd,” and that there was no malicious or racist intent behind the comment. She rejected the idea that the possessive use of “my” when referring to the black man was racist at all.
Trump was referring to an incident in Arizona when a black Trump supporter physically assaulted an anti-Trump protestor. He praised the supporter’s actions.
If Trump wants to convince minorities to vote for him, this does not seem like the best way to go about it. He is already known for his ignorant statements about immigrants, Islam, and women. He famously called Mexican immigrants “rapists,” and lately has dug the hole even deeper by insulting the judge presiding over the Trump University lawsuits for his Mexican heritage.
In November, Trump retweeted a picture featuring a dark-skinned man wearing a bandana, a dark shirt and military-style pants and holding a handgun sideways. The photo included “crime statistics” from a nonexistent group that falsely stated violent crime committed by African-Americans.
And yet Trump is surprised when he is called racist and xenophobic? He can’t be serious.
As for “his African-American,” he did not seem at all bothered by the attention. A local paper identified the Black man as Gregory Cheadle, a Republican California congressional candidate.
“That was me seriously. I got two autographs out of that.”
What more can you say? Truth is stranger than fiction.
Feature image screengrab via YouTube.
