Tim Scott waxed about his family arc — "from cotton to Congress in one lifetime" — and invoked George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Nikki Haley spoke of her Indian roots and alluded to her decision to take down the Confederate flag. Herschel Walker said he's seen "racism up close" — and it's not Donald Trump.
For a president credibly accused of stoking racial fears and divisions throughout his term, Trump, with his choice of speakers, leaned hard into the topic during the first night of his convention on Monday. One Republican after another defended Trump’s record on race, while highlighting Joe Biden's race-related gaffes and history pushing the 1994 crime bill.
All told, it was a surprising amount of attention paid to an issue typically associated with Democrats.
But even as speakers such as Scott and Haley attempted to soften Trump's image on race — while essentially making the case that the racial justice movement has gone too far in its views of policing — others took a harder-edged tack that undercut the message of inclusion. In an ominous presentation that warned suburbanites that their safety is at risk if Democrats win, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home in St. Louis, made clear that the president's outreach would go only so far.
“What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country,” Patricia McCloskey said. “Make no mistake: No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America."
The Republican convention opened amid another round of mass protests over a police shooting of a Black man, this time in Kenosha, Wis. With voters of color backing Biden by staggering margins, most Black speakers downplayed criticisms of Trump poor record on race by recounting their own personal experiences with him.
“Growing up in the Deep South, I’ve seen racism up close, I know what it is, and it isn’t Donald Trump,” said Walker, the former NFL player, who said he has known the president for 37 years, when the then-business mogul bought the New Jersey Generals pro football team.
Walker said that Trump cares about social justice, and “keeps right on fighting to improve the lives of Black Americans.”
Georgia state lawmaker Vernon Jones, a self-proclaimed lifelong Democrat, also vouched for the president and maintained that his support is growing among Black Americans who feel they're not being served by Democratic politicians.
“The Democratic Party does not want Black people to leave their mental plantation,” Jones said. "I have news for Joe Biden: We are free, we are free people with free minds, and I'm part of a large and growing segment of the Black community who are independent thinkers, and we believe that Donald Trump is the president that America needs to lead us forward."
Republicans pointed to Trump's accomplishments on issues affecting Black Americans, such as increasing funding for historically Black colleges and universities, supporting minority-owned small businesses and signing into law the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill pushed by his administration.
Polls show Biden with a 75-point lead over Trump among Black voters on average, and Trump is polling at 8 percent among Black voters. But if he can close the gap with Biden even slightly, the president's advisers think it could make the difference in several swing states.
Republicans also seized on Biden's gaffes and generalizations on the campaign trail as examples of Democrats' ineptitude.
“Joe Biden said if a Black man didn‘t vote for him, he wasn't truly Black. Joe Biden said Black people are a monolithic community. It was Joe Biden who said poor kids can be just as smart as white kids,“ Scott said, before pointing to Biden‘s leading role in crafting the 1994 crime bill, which contributed to mass incarceration.
Trump, meanwhile, “signed into law historically high funding for [historically Black colleges and universities], as well as a bill to give them permanent funding for the first time ever,“ Scott said in the final speech of the night.
Haley, a fellow South Carolinian who served as governor and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also challenged Democrats‘ views on race.
“In much of the Democratic Party, it‘s now fashionable to say that America is racist,” she said. “That is a lie. America is not a racist country.”
“The American people know we can do better. And of course we value and respect every Black life.“
Kim Klacik, who is running for the Congress in the Baltimore district long held by civil rights advocate Elijah Cummings, sounded a similar note, saying that the “days of blindly supporting Democrats are coming to an end.”
“Joe Biden believes we can’t think for ourselves, that the color of someone’s skin dictates their political views,” Klacik said, condemning Democrats' leadership in Baltimore (a frequent target of Trump).
Yet it's far from clear that a four-night convention can counter four years of fodder Trump has provided to critics. Just last week, POLITICO reported on a recording of a private meeting in 2017 at which Trump acknowledged that lower turnout among Black voters benefited him in the2 election.
“Many Blacks didn’t go out to vote for Hillary ’cause they liked me,” he told a room of civil rights leaders. “That was almost as good as getting the vote, you know, and it was great.”
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August 25, 2020 at 09:27AM
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A GOP convention surprise: Trump goes all-in on race - POLITICO
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