A Democratic member of Congress said he would have a lot of support from the black community if he spoke at length about how the Democrats have taken African Americans for granted.
“I can do an hour-long speech about Democrats taking African Americans for granted and I’d have a line behind me of very prominent African-Americans who would say, ‘Amen,'” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto in a phone interview that aired Saturday.
That comment was prompted by Cavuto asking about President Trump’s claims about how the black community has thrived under his administration and his push for African Americans to consider not overwhelmingly embracing the Democratic Party. The issue returned to the forefront this week after rapper Kanye West tweeted his support of the president and condemned former President Barack Obama for a lack of reform in Chicago. During the backlash that ensued, Chance the Rapper defended his contemporary, tweeting, “Black people don’t have to be democrats.” After Trump thanked Chance by name, he clarified that he was not embracing Trump,
Cleaver, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Trump struggles to connect with the black community at large for a number of reasons.
“The thing that prevents African Americans from connecting with this president has been the things he has said that either he said them out of ignorance or, as some would believe believe, he said it out of malice,” Cleaver said.
As an example Cleaver brought up Trump’s feud with Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., last yeat during which his chief of staff John Kelly called the black lawmaker an “empty barrel” — a comment Wilson said was racist.
