‘What the hell do you have to lose?’: Trump’s latest insulting appeal to black voters gets trashed
As Donald Trump’s erratic presidential campaign stumbles toward the November election buffeted by collapsing poll numbers, the candidate spent the past week chasing after voters who have shown the least amount of interest in casting votes for the blustery self-identified billionaire.
The African-American community.
With current polling often showing Trump standing at 1 percent with black voters in some states, Trump’s advocates have hit the cable shows attempting — and failing — to make the case that their man is on the “cutting edge of civil rights,” which has not been well received.
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 “What the hell do you have to lose?” also rankled commenters on Twitter who saw his comment for what it was: an insult.
how would you feel if candidate asked for your vote this way? https://t.co/9ReoaiHE9O
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 20, 2016
I'd love to chat with Trump about how black people are all "living in poverty" but I can't decide which of my houses we should meet at.
— George Wallace (@MrGeorgeWallace) August 19, 2016
Donald Trump believes black America has "nothing to lose" by casting its votes. He can't conjure a vast black middle class. Only stereotype.
— David Simon (@AoDespair) August 20, 2016
Trump asked for black votes tonight. A week ago, he was telling his supporters that America needed voter-ID. Okay. https://t.co/JDD0guxznP
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) August 20, 2016
"Your lives are utterly terrible so you might as well vote Trump" is a hell of pitch. https://t.co/bSUl0HrfKN
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) August 20, 2016
Hey Trump, you don’t talk to white people when you’re addressing the problems of black communities and people. Why not talk to them?
— Scott Knowles (@wsrphoto) August 20, 2016
Trump to Blacks: "What the hell do you have to lose?" Um, the right to vote? "How the GOP Gutted Voting Rights"
https://t.co/85qEaxzh8O via— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 19, 2016
Trump's attempt to win the black vote: "C'mon what's the worst that can happen???"
— Paul Taylor II (@Ptaylor_78) August 20, 2016
What trump said about black people is another slap in the face! If you're black and vote for him you're dumb…
— Alicia Thomas (@Queen_Alicia15) August 20, 2016
Trump gave this "black ppl are trash & have nothing to lose, so y'all might as well vote for me" speech in a city that's 93% white?
Tired.
— s.z. cissé (@Seynaboucisse_) August 20, 2016
So no amount of insults disguised as sympathy is going to get black people to sit in the colored car of the Trump Train.
— Justin (@_JGR) August 20, 2016
Trump said ALL of that like there aren't flourishing black communities & we all are ONLY living in poverty. Clearly HE has nothing to lose.
— Ororo Munroe (@puregr8nesss) August 20, 2016
Watch the video below via The Washington Post:
The White House is moving the goal posts once again. Instead of taking drastic action, like asking every state's governor to mandate a quarantine to reduce the spread of coronavirus, it is quietly upping its projected death toll, just one day after stunning Americans with a six-digit death rate.
On Sunday President Donald Trump told Americans he thinks if 100,000 Americans die from coronavirus he will have done "a very good job."
On Monday Dr. Deborah Birx announced the White House is projecting 100,000 to 200,000 deaths.
Tuesday evening, the number increased 20 percent.
Canadian Olympic chiefs said Monday the health and safety of athletes had prompted the country's decision to withdraw its team from the Tokyo Olympics amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A day after Canada became the first team to announce its withdrawal from the July 24-August 9 Games, Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) chief David Shoemaker said athletes had been left in an "impossible position."
With public health authorities urging individuals to stay inside to curb the spread of COVID-19, athletes had been caught between a desire to heed health and safety advice while trying to minimize disruption to training programs.
Inching across a field littered with Vietnam war-era bombs, Ngoc leads an all-women demining team clearing unexploded ordnance that has killed tens of thousands of people -- including her uncle.
"He died in an explosion. I was haunted by memories of him," Le Thi Bich Ngoc tells AFP as she oversees the controlled detonation of a cluster bomb found in a sealed-off site in central Quang Tri province.
More than 6.1 million hectares of land in Vietnam remain blanketed by unexploded munitions -- mainly dropped by US bombers -- decades after the war ended in 1975.
At least 40,000 Vietnamese have since died in related accidents. Victims are often farmers who accidentally trigger explosions, people salvaging scrap metal, or children who mistake bomblets for toys.
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