Trump VP contender suggests Black lives were better under Jim Crow during campaign event

One of the lawmakers being considered for Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate suggested to a crowd of Black conservatives that things were better under Jim Crow.

U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Wesley Hunt (R-TX) spoke to a crowd in Philadelphia this week, where they made the case to a group of supporters that living under Jim Crow was better for them, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The event was part of the campaign's “Black Americans for Trump” initiative, though the group met in Northeast Philadelphia, "one of the whitest and most conservative parts of Philly," the report said.

“To win a fight, you have to go where the fish are,” explained Hunt, comparing the election to fishing. “We’re going bravely where no Republicans have gone in decades, and we’re going directly to the community.”

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Later that day, the campaign held an event they called “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars." Though attendees were mainly Black, the Inquirer said a sign-in sheet showed about half of attendees lived outside of Philadelphia.

“Black issues are American issues,” Hunt said. “We hate what’s happening at the border. We don’t like being unsafe … and the person who’s going to save the country from being on the brink is Donald John Trump.”

”The reason why the Democrats have a hold on the Black community is because our parents’ parents’ parents keep telling us, ‘You gotta vote Democrat,’” Hunt said. “It is up to us in this generation to say, ‘Well, why?’”

Sports journalist Michelle Tafoya moderated a discussion with the men and at one point asked Donalds about the ways in which Black men and Black women view politics. The polls shows around 18 percent of Black voters said they would support Trump, Pew Research found. That number is different for Black men, who support Trump to the tune of 20 percent compared to women at just 16 percent, the survey showed.

But when comparing the two genders, Donalds explained that Black men are "hunters," and Biden has taken their "spear."

”First of all, there’s a difference between men and women anyway,” Donalds said. “Men have been created by God to be conquerors, to be hunters. That’s who they are. And so a Black man in today’s America is looking around and saying, ‘How can I go hunt for my people and hunt for my family?’ … They’re looking at what Joe Biden has done and saying, ‘I can’t hunt! You took my spear. You took my bow.’”

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By contrast, he claimed women are infuriated by transgender people and immigrants.

“Black women,” he said, “are looking at their sons and saying, ‘Now, wait a minute. You’re telling me that my young son can become a girl? Nope. You’re telling me that my son and my daughter who need an education now have to go and be less than because of illegal immigrants in the city of Philadelphia? Nope.’”

During a different point, Donalds explained that young Black people are prioritizing the nuclear family “helping to breathe the revival of a Black middle class in America.”

Democrats destroyed Black families, he argued.

“You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively,” he said. “And then H.E.W., Lyndon Johnson — you go down that road, and now we are where we are,” he added, referring to the former U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded Wednesday.

"It has come to my attention that a so-called leader has made the factually inaccurate statement that black folks were better off during Jim Crow," he said.

"How dare you make such an an ignorant observation? You better check yourself before you wreck yourself."