Black leaders are condemning former President Trump’s recent comments about Black voters as “racist.”
Speaking at the Black Conservative Federation (BCF) annual gala in South Carolina on Friday, Trump said his legal woes have earned him the support of Black voters around the country.
“I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing,” Trump told the crowd. “And a lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing but possibly, maybe, there’s something there.”
The former president added that Black Americans also “embraced” his mugshot and that he knows Black people because they built his buildings.
His comments quickly drew outrage from The NAACP.
“The NAACP is outraged, but not surprised by yet another racist remark from the former President,” Derrick Johnson, NAACP president, told The Hill in a statement.
“Donald Trump is delusional to think that his criminality would be an attractive quality to Black voters,” he continued. “He has taken advantage of an inherently racist system, while Black Americans have been abused by it. We are not the same.”