Commentator Don Lemon spoke on CNN about how he has felt compelled to correct Black men who say they plan on voting for former President Trump.
As the election draws closer, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign not only has vulnerability with men in general, but with Black men, specifically. While Harris has made numerous attempts to gain support from men and Black America, male commentators, from radio host Charlamagne tha God to comedic actor Eddie Griffin, have warned that she may not be as popular with them as expected, particularly as Trump has gained support from Black men.
“Now you have been traveling, talking to a lot of voters, and I will just say that you texted me right around the Democratic convention and you said, ‘I am talking to people and Kamala Harris has a problem with Black men.'”
“Yeah and I told her campaign – I did not hear from them, I mean, who am I for them to get back to me – but there‘s a problem. Look, I went from battleground state to battleground state when they invited me to the convention, I didn‘t just want to fly there, so I said, ‘I‘m going to go and talk to voters in battleground states.’ And I did,” Lemon said. “It was not curated. I went up to people, just doing man on the street, ‘Who are you going to vote for, Black men?’ and time after time after time they said, ‘I‘m voting for Donald Trump.’”
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He recounted to the host that “Most of the time they said ‘for economic reasons.’ Or because ‘he gave me a stimulus check’ and I had to correct them over and over and tell them where that stimulus check came from: a Democratic Congress and from Nancy Pelosi and that Donald Trump actually held it up so that his name could be on the check, so they think they got the check directly from him. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has given one or two stimulus checks as well, but they seem not to know and understand that.”
“You can vote for whomever you want to vote for, but the reasons that you‘re going to vote for them, I think they should be accurate and factual, and you should know why you‘re supporting someone,” he said.
The final version of the 2020 CARES Act, which provided for the first round of COVID stimulus checks, was first passed in the Republican majority Senate, with Trump signing the bill into law immediately after passage in the House. The Treasury Department denied at the time that adding Trump’s name delayed the delivery of stimulus checks.
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Dana Bash brought up how the Trump campaign and its allies are using cultural issues, particularly Harris’ support for transgender ideology, to decrease the vice president’s support among Black men.
Bash played a portion from a Trump campaign ad specifically highlighting Harris speaking about gender surgeries for transgender inmates, along with footage of radio host Charlamagne Tha God reacting to it, saying, “Hell, no, I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that.”
Lemon responded that transgender people are a small portion of the population, but Republicans are using this issue as a “political cudgel” and “wedge issue” in this election.
“Is it because, culturally, there‘s a more conservative sort of philosophy?” Bash asked.
“I think culturally, yes, but I think anything that you can do to drive a wedge between Kamala Harris and the Black community, or any community, that they‘re going to use it,” Lemon said. “I would encourage people to try to understand people, to be more curious about it rather than judgmental about what the vice president has said, and to add some context of behind why she’s saying it, but I think it‘s just because they know that it can drive a wedge between her and the Black community.”
Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
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