CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson: Trump’s Sending Message to White Voters That They Won’t Have to ‘Share Power in His America’
CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson dissected President Donald Trump’s appeal to white voters during their post RNC coverage on Wednesday night — noting that his message to them is, “you won’t have to share that power in his America.”
She pointed to Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who pointed guns at protesters marching past their home in St. Louis,
“They drew guns on people outside their home on a sidewalk because they were Black,” she added. “I mean, that’s exactly what happened in that instance, and that is the message, I think, that Donald Trump wants to deliver to particularly white people. That he is the one standing between the lawlessness of Black and brown people.”
She called attention to the fear some people have of sharing power in America and claimed Trump is essentially telling white voters that he will help them retain their status. Henderson also noted that many speakers at the RNC pushed the message that Trump is an advocate for minorities, ignoring that he is a “racial flame thrower” who has a tendency to “race bait.”
“You have Donald Trump saying that — to white America, you won’t have to share that power in his America. So I think, listen, he has been able to reinvent himself to white audiences throughout his career, particularly white evangelicals, who see him in some ways as a messianic kind of figure,” she said. “There are white Americans who very much want to believe in Donald Trump, so they could very well believe in this version of Donald Trump that is presented here that is patently false and patently at odds with the Donald Trump we know and have seen over these last many years.”
Anderson Cooper interjecting to say that many of the messages were directed to moderate white Americans who were looking for permission to vote for Trump — noting that the message that he isn’t racist might help.
“I actually think it’s both. It is particularly Black men. You saw all those Black men that are featured. There are no women. Black women, right? We talk about him going after women. He’s really just going after white women. I don’t think a single Black woman has stood live in the podium area at all,” she added. “Maybe that will happen at some other point. But they are very, very consistently and strategically going after Black men and talking about some of the things that Joe Biden has said and done because there is a history of Black men voting for Donald Trump.”
Watch above, via CNN.
