The following are real excerpts from a CNN segment Friday night about the South Carolina Republican primary, which ultimately saw a handy Donald Trump victory.
Bakari Sellers, Democrat CNN political analyst: “Donald Trump is a racist who utilizes racism as a political currency. … He says these things to black voters, to their faces — the ones who are ignorant enough to be in that room — not talking to them. That’s what people miss. Donald Trump is not talking to black voters when he goes down these tropes. He’s actually talking to white voters and to his base to churn them up and build in a lot of resentment that we see.”
It’s not a particularly original argument that Democrats’ opponents are anti-black racists, even when the opponents are black (recent CNN headline: “The police who killed Tyre Nichols were Black. But they might still have been driven by racism”). But there’s a new air to it, as surveys repeatedly show black voters souring on Biden and at least stating they’re interested in supporting Trump. Just as they did in 2016, prominent media commentators at CNN, MSNBC and the rest are stating WITHOUT EVIDENCE that Republican overtures to black voters, specifically from the Trump campaign, are in reality intended to beef up support from whites.
More from Sellers: “And when you see him (Trump) talking down to black folk in their face, there is a large swath of the American public that says, ‘I like the way that sounds.’
