COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump has argued that black people like him because he faced discrimination in the legal system, something they can relate to.
“I was accused the second time, the third time, and the fourth time, and a lot of people said that black people love me for it, because they’ve been hurt and discriminated against so badly, and that’s actually how I’m being discriminated against,” she said.
Trump said Friday evening: “I’m being impeached for you, the American people. I’m being impeached for you, the black people. I’m being impeached by sick people for many different groups, which are sick sick people.” In his speech at the Black Conservative Federation’s annual gala ceremony where he received the “Champion of Black America” award.
Trump said throughout his nearly two-hour speech that black Americans’ support stems from an understanding of how corrupt systems can lead to “great evil.”
“Some of the greatest evils in our country’s history stem from corrupt systems that seek to target and subjugate others, denying them their freedoms and rights,” he said. “I think that’s why black people are on my side now, because they see what happened to me happened to them.”
Trump said that black Americans showed their support for him by hugging the decorated goods shot his cup.
“My cup shot — we’ve all seen the cup shot, and you know who took it the most? The black population,” Trump said. “You see black people walking around with my hand, you know, making shirts and selling them for $19 each. It’s pretty amazing—millions, by the way.”
Trump attended the event along with other black Republican politicians, including Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Reps. Wesley Hunt of Texas and Byron Donalds of Florida, and Ben Carson, who was Trump’s secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Adam Vasolis Sr., 33, of Bronx, New York, said he agreed with Trump’s characterization of his appeal to black voters.
“I definitely understand that some black men may feel that he resonates with his issues, because most of the issues that black men were concerned about were legal issues,” said Vasolis, vice chair of the New York Young Republican Black Caucus.
Before the gala, Jasmine Harris, the Black media director for the Biden campaign, called Trump an “anti-black tyrant” and “the proud poster boy of modern racism.”
“This is the same man who falsely accused the Central Park Five, called George Floyd’s humanity into question, compared his impeachment trial to a lynching, and ensured the unemployment gap for black workers during his presidency,” Harris said.
“Donald Trump has been showing black Americans his true colors for years: an incompetent, anti-black tyrant who thinks so low of us that he had an open dinner with white nationalists a week after announcing his 2024 candidacy,” he said.
Trump, in turn, called Biden a “racist” on Friday night.
“Joe Biden has proven to be a really nasty and brutal racist. He has been a racist,” Trump said. “Whether you like it or not. Unfortunately, I don’t. Joe Biden has proven himself to be a truly vile and vicious racist. He has been a racist. Whether you like him or not. I just didn’t like it by accident…Biden spent years with a notorious segregationist talked.
The Biden campaign did not immediately return a request for comment on Trump’s remarks.
Biden has served with segregationists like former South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, and he has emphasized his ability for compromise with them. This week, Biden said he has served with “real racists” in his long career, but that the current Republican Party is worse.
“I served with Strom Thurmond. I served with all these guys with terrible records in the race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys don’t believe in basic democratic principles,” he said at a fundraiser. in California.
Trump’s comments come as his allies prepare to launch An attempt to deliver a historic share of the Black vote to the Republicans in the 2024 election.
“We have coalition groups across the country that are going to launch initiatives in those communities very soon that will focus on things like voter outreach and engagement and messaging in black communities,” Darrell Scott, pastor of Black Ohio. Trump is an adviser and is helping lead the effort, he told NBC News.
Black Conservative Federation organizers said at the event that they are mobilizing groups across the country in hopes of ensuring Trump wins a majority of the black male vote in a general election matchup against Biden.
“I believe President Trump will get 50% of the black male vote,” said Diante Johnson of the Black Conservative Federation. “The Democratic Party literally pushed black people out.”