Donald Trump has yet again put his foot in his mouth in a failed attempt to gain Black votes.
Continuing his African-American outreach tour, the Republican presidential nominee held a rally in the predominantly-white suburb of Dimondale, Michigan on Friday. Trump began his statements as he has many of his recent speaking engagements aimed at swaying the Black community, criticizing Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration. “Look how much African-Americans are suffering under Democratic control,” he said. Among the many low points in his address during the event was a brash, statistically-misleading rant intended to appeal to Black voters in which he commented on the socioeconomic struggles currently affecting the African-American community. “What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump,” he asked bluntly. “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?”
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As CNN pointed out, Trump’s “58%” statistic leaves out the fact that only 42.7% of African-Americans age 16-24 being employed doesn’t automatically mean the other 58 percent are actually looking for jobs, thus making his jobless claim a questionable one. Hillary Clinton responded to Trump on Friday evening, calling his comments “so ignorant, it’s staggering” in a tweet sent from her official account.
This is so ignorant it’s staggering. https://t.co/t2fZl9sqKs
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 19, 2016
At any rate, given Trump’s public support from the KKK and recent comments praising the Industrial Revolution as one of American’s greatest periods despite African-Americans still being enslaved at that time, it seems Black voters certainly have much to lose if Trump makes his way into the White House.