The White House said Tuesday that it was “repugnant” for former President Donald Trump to compare himself to black Americans because — in his view — he, too, had been discriminated against by the American criminal justice system.
The Associated Press reported Sunday:
“I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing,” Trump told a black-tie event for Black conservatives in South Carolina ahead of Saturday’s Republican primary. “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.”
In response to a question about Trump’s remarks, White House Karine Jean-Pierre — after claiming she was not commenting on the 2024 campaign specifically — called Trump’s statement “repugnant” and “divisive” and smacked of “racial stereotypes.”
“It is profane to compare the long, painful history of abuse and discrimination suffered by black Americans to something that is totally different than self-serving purposes,” she said, visibly irritated by Trump’s remarks. “This is not what Joe Biden wants to see.”
She said that she had discussed Trump’s comments with President Joe Biden and that he was aware of them.
Black conservatives defended Trump on Tuesday in interviews with ABC News.
Kevin McGarry, co-founder of Every Black Life Matters, told ABC News: “[A] lot of the people in the community, especially the Black community, who have felt that there’s multiple tiers of justice, are seeing that played out in front of their very eyes and they’re saying, ‘Yeah, I can relate to this guy.”
As president, Trump received an award in 2019 from a bipartisan African American organization, the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, for his work in passing the First Step Act, a reform to criminal justice that was a high priority for black American leaders.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
