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‘What the hell do you have to lose?’: Trump’s latest insulting appeal to black voters gets trashed

Tom Boggioni

20 Aug 2016 at 09:42 ET                   
Donald Trump speaking in Dimondale, Michigan -- (WaPo screen grab)

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.

Watch the video below via The Washington Post:

About the Author
Tom Boggioni is based in the quaint seaside community of Pacific Beach in less quaint San Diego. He writes about politics, media, culture, and other annoyances. Mostly he spends his days at the beach gazing at the horizon waiting for the end of the world, or the sun to go down. Whichever comes first.
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