Trump declares he will win 95 percent of African-Americans — he's currently at 1 percent
While Donald Trump is polling at just one percent with African-American voters, he declared Friday speaking in Dimondale, Michigan that he will win 95 percent of black voters in November.
"Tonight, I’m asking for the vote of every single African-American... who wants to see a better future," Trump told the predominantly white crowd.
In a suburb outside of Lansing, Trump asked his audience what African-Americans have to lose by voting for him. “What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?”
CNN producers reported that the attendees of the rally were predominantly white, perhaps that is due to Dimondale being a 93 percent white community. Just today, a young man was thrown out of a Trump rally. He claims it was because he has dark skin. The same thing happened to a black Republican official who was also booted from a Trump rally in Georgia in June.
This comes less than 24-hours after the head of Trump’s black outreach in Florida says the "piss poor" campaign doesn’t care about black people.
“You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs. Fifty-eight percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?” Trump said. “And at the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you. Because I will produce.”
Trump then attacked his opponent for what he says she will do to African-Americans. "Hillary Clinton would rather provide a job to a refugee from overseas than to give that job to unemployed African American youth," Trump declared, without providing evidence or information to verify it.
In June, Trump referred to a black man in the crowd as "my African-American."
“Look at my African-American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest? You know what I’m talking about?” Trump said, before relaying an anecdote about another black supporter who punched a protester. The man, while a tea-party member, also turned out not to be a Trump supporter.
He then exited the rally to the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
Trump rallies have been notoriously hostile to people of color who attend and encouraging to those willing to attack them.
UPDATE:
Hillary Clinton's campaign responded to Trump's speech Friday night saying, “Donald Trump asks what the African American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color," the statement said via email.
"Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African American community," it closed.
The campaign then cited multiple incidents where Trump was unfair among African Americans, including a Justice Department investigation against Trump's housing discrimination, where employees marked applications from minorities with “C” for “colored.” Trump's defense was that he didn't want to rent to Welfare recipients but maintained he wasn't discriminating.
They also cite incidents where Trump has amassed alarming support from white nationalists, several KKK members and former supporters of The Klan.
Check out the videos below:
Trump in Michigan to African-American voters: “What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?” https://t.co/uQXDx4hCTJ
— CNN (@CNN) August 19, 2016