Trump makes pitch to ‘forgotten’ black voters
Atlanta trip signals renewed outreach
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Three years after challenging black voters to shrug off support for Democrats and back him, President Donald Trump on Friday used Atlanta as a staging ground for a new black outreach initiative that he said would be a key part of his 2020 re-election bid.
Surrounded by roughly 400 supporters, including some who were from out of state, the president invoked the refrain he repeated so often during the 2016 campaign in front of largely white crowds as an appeal to black voters: “What the hell do you have to lose?”
Those who took the gamble and supported him, Mr. Trump said, were rewarded with criminal justice initiatives, low black unemployment rates and staunch opposition to abortion, he said at the launch of his Black Voices for Trump group. Democrats, he countered, can only come up with empty promises.
“Under Democratic politicians, African Americans have become forgotten — literally forgotten — Americans,” Mr. Trump told the crowd, a mostly black audience that also included much of the Georgia GOP’s top leadership. “Under my administration, they’ve become forgotten no longer.”
Outside the cramped Georgia World Congress Center, hundreds gathered to protest the president, waving signs mocking his agenda or supporting his impeachment. Some got into shouting matches with Trump supporters. And earlier in the day, several of Georgia’s most prominent Democratic leaders assailed his presidency.
State Sen. Nikema Williams, the Atlanta-based chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said Mr. Trump was bringing his “backward agenda to Georgia to pretend like his actions haven’t been a disaster for the black community and marginalized communities across this entire country.”
“In Georgia, we know better on issues from health care to criminal justice to education to basic respect, Donald Trump has failed to be a president for all Americans, especially Americans from marginalized backgrounds,” Ms. Williams said Friday morning.
Mr. Trump is trying to improve on dismal support among black voters. Just 8% of them cast ballots for him nationwide in 2016. And a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that only 4% of blacks think Mr. Trump’s actions and policies have benefited black people.
Angeline Payne, who lives in South Fulton, said she attended the event to support Mr. Trump and “rally and recruit” black voters. More blacks need to get engaged in politics and stop letting others tell them how to vote, she said.
“If you live in America, you’re involved,” Ms. Payne, 58, said. “So you should get educated. Find out about the parties, where the parties came from, how they represent you, and then make a decision on what party you want to be and don’t let somebody tell you what party you’re in.”
The event was nothing like the last time Mr. Trump appeared at the Georgia World Congress Center, when thousands of his supporters thronged a vast concrete ballroom in 2016 for a rally memorable in part because the lights briefly went out.
Friday’s event was held in a far smaller room in the convention center and was open to only those who had invitations, leaving some of the president’s backers waiting outside for a chance to see him speak.
Mr. Trump was preceded by Vice President Mike Pence, who told the crowd of the sweep of black Republicans
who were elected to office during the Reconstruction era and said the GOP, from Abraham Lincoln to Dwight Eisenhower (who left office nearly 60 years ago), has advocated for black Americans.
Then came U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, the only black member of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet, who drew a rousing ovation when he told the crowd that if “Trump is a racist, he’s an awfully bad one.”
That contrasted with the message from Ms. Williams and other Democratic legislators, who blasted the president’s play for black voters and said their party is best positioned to meet the needs of communities of color.