If Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is to defeat President Donald Trump and end the nightmare America has been suffering for the last three and a half years, it’s going to take a huge turn-out by black voters to make it happen. Even Trump knows it.
Trump often claims that he has done more for black people than any president in history, including Abraham Lincoln. But that’s a lie backed up by the fact that Trump frequently panders to white supremacists and does not support the Black Lives Matter movement in any way. Trump has also moved to eliminate public housing and suppress the vote. And then there’s the fact that the coronavirus has devastated black communities more than white ones while Trump has failed to deliver relief to black-owned businesses.
As Biden leads him in the polls, Trump understands that black votes are a key to his chances of winning this election, whether they actually cast their votes for him or stay home.
Just prior to his inauguration in 2017, Trump privately boasted that he won because black voters stayed home.
According to Politico:
In a private meeting inside Trump Tower days before his inauguration, Donald Trump told a group of civil rights leaders something most Republicans wouldn’t dare publicly acknowledge: lower turnout among Black voters did, in fact, benefit him in the 2016 presidential election.
“Many Blacks didn’t go out to vote for Hillary ‘cause they liked me. That was almost as good as getting the vote, you know, and it was great,” Trump said in a recording captured by businessman William Wachtel’s then-chief of staff Tootsie Warhol.
Wachtel attended the private meeting with Martin Luther King III, James Forbes Scott Rechler, and Johnny Mack, so there are other witnessed to the remarks.
The fact that low voter turnout among blacks in 2016 contributed to Trump’s win makes it even more important that they vote no matter what this November. They could tip the balance in Biden’s favor and be a driving force behind Democrats regaining the Senate majority, which would give Congress the ability to pass voting rights legislation to counter Republican voter suppression efforts.
“Three-and-a-half years later, those comments take on new weight, as Democrats and Republicans battle over restrictions on voting amid a historic pandemic,” Politico noted. “Trump has repeatedly alleged, without evidence, that expanding mail-in voting will lead to massive fraud, and Republicans have filed lawsuits against a number of states attempting to do so. Higher voter turnout tends to benefit Democrats — low turnout among Black voters in key states is one of the reasons Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016. And voting rights activists have warned that GOP efforts to limit access to absentee ballots could keep many from voting this fall, particularly Black people, seniors and others at high risk from Covid-19.”
If Trump has his way, this could be the last election in which black people get to vote. He’s bound and determined to continue pandering to white racists by chipping away at voting rights and civil rights and ignoring police brutality and racial injustice. Under Trump, systemic racism has only worsened and will continue to get worse if he stays in office for another four years. Biden is not perfect, but he’s a whole lot better than Trump. After all, while Trump continues to have the whitest man alive in Mike Pence as his running mate, Biden has chosen Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), making her the first black woman vice-presidential nominee. If Biden wins, Harris would make history, and black voters would be a large part of the historic victory and would once again have a voice in the White House.
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