Democratic Rep. James Clyburn said he would “pray” for any black voters who cast a ballot for President Trump in this year’s election.
During an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, Clyburn was asked about a recent Fox News poll showing 14% of black voters support Trump’s reelection bid.
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“I don’t know where those polls come from,” Clyburn said. “I can tell you what, and I feel this sincerely … I’m the father of three black women. I am the son of a black woman. If any black man can go in a polling place and cast a vote for a man who referred to a black woman as a dog on national television, I’m going to have to pray for them.”
“I will have to pray for them. I don’t know of any man [who] can abide that kind of disrespect and insult,” he continued.
Clyburn appeared to be referencing a 2018 tweet Trump sent praising former chief of staff John Kelly for firing White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.
“When you give a crazed, crying, lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!” Trump said.
Baier asked Clyburn if he held Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to the same standard, noting that Biden told black voters in May that they aren’t really black if they vote for Trump.
“He later apologized for that, but you’re sending the same message to African Americans who may have a different choice in this election,” Baier said.
“What I said was, any man that calls one of my three daughters a dog, I would never vote for them, and I don’t understand any black man that would vote for anybody that refers to a black woman [that way],” Clyburn responded. “All of us that I know are sons of black women. I don’t stand for that kind of insult for my mothers, my sisters, or my children.”
Polls have shown that Trump may be making inroads with black voters ahead of Tuesday’s election. According to a Thursday Rasmussen poll, Trump had the support of 31% of black voters. That number would be five times more than Trump received in 2016, when only 6% of black voters cast their ballot for him compared to 91% who voted for Hillary Clinton.
