Throughout the campaign, we’ve heard talk that Donald Trump is actually winning because there is an army of hidden Trump supporters who are scared to tell pollsters they’re about to rally to the Donald’s standard. The latest example of this came on Thursday. One of Trump’s loudest black supporters would have you believe that Trump is poised to take a majority of the black vote.
Darrell Scott, pastor of New Spirit Revival Center near Cleveland, is one of the leaders of a very exclusive club–blacks who support Trump. You may recall that in September, Scott invited Trump to one of his conferences and had the attendees pray that the Donald be protected from a “concentrated Satanic attack.”
Well, on Thursday, Scott told Jim Bakker why Trump needed that level of protection. Supposedly, the black community is poised to put Trump over the top because God himself has chosen him to be president. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
Scott claimed that there was “a huge silent majority” in the black community that was about to vote for Trump. He called them “the incog-negroes,” and said they were not telling anyone they would rally to the Donald because “they fear the people.”
You may recall that Scott led a group of black pastors who met with Trump in December 2015. He said that out of the 109 pastors at that meeting, 88 of them said they would back Trump–but they weren’t willing to tell anyone about it out of fear that they would lose members.
Really, Darrell? If that’s true, then why didn’t these pastors join these other supposed hidden Trump supporters in coming out of the woodwork during Hillary Clinton’s two worst periods of the campaign. Specifically, the week after 9-11, when she had to take a break due to a bout of pneumonia, and the aftermath of the FBI launching a renewed look at emails that might be related to Hillary’s email server.
At no point during either of these periods did Trump’s polling numbers enough for Trump to take a lead in any legitimate polling aggregator. And at no point did Trump’s support among blacks budge above single digits. That leads me to conclude that these hidden black Trump supporters, just like hidden Trump supporters as a whole, only exist in the minds of Trump and Stephen Bannon.
Moreover, if I were a member of a church pastored by one of those pastors, I’d have long since walked out. After all, they would be supporting a man who, contrary to what Scott would have you believe, has a long history of blowing racist dog whistles predating his campaign. Remember, Trump was one of the main promoters of birtherism, and also stirred up racially-charged hatred against the five wrongfully convicted teenagers in the Central Park jogger case even after they were exonerated.
Scott added that he and a number of other black pastors who support Trump decided to rally to him because they are supporting “God’s agenda.” He admits that both candidates are “flawed,” but they have a moral duty to back the candidate to whom “God has entrusted his agenda.” To his mind, Trump is that candidate, because “God has put him in his hand.”
Like Scott, I’m a black pentecostal/charismatic Christian. I know God uses people whom we normally don’t think he’d use. But does anyone seriously believe God would put his hand on a guy who plasters a private cell phone number on social media, mocks the disabled, degrades women, and blows blatantly anti-Semitic dog whistles not once, but twice? And would God rally to someone who hasn’t even tried to ensure a safe environment at his events? Not bloody likely.
All Scott proved with this spiel is that he is as morally bankrupt as the man he worships. You can say that about any pastor, black or white, who backs Trump at this point.
(featured image courtesy Phillip Morris, The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer)
