On CNN, Morgan State University professor Jason Johnson discussed Hillary Clinton’s characterization of Donald Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” with CNN politics reporter Stephen Collinson and University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato.
Donald Trump
The Root: As the Race Tightens, Hillary Clinton Knows #BlackVotesMatter
The week after Labor Day is the official beginning of the campaign to be president of the United States of America. Commercials and news coverage will fool you into thinking that the campaign has been going on for the last two years, but effectively, most Americans don’t tune in until the last burger has been flipped and B. Smith tells you to stop wearing white.
That’s why the national election polls and the state polls are beginning to show the race for the presidency tightening between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. More “undecideds” have begun to commit, more #NeverTrump and #HoldYourNoseForHillary people are reluctantly choosing sides, and regular voters have perked up their ears. So how does a candidate for president start to flex during the final stretch of the campaign? I spoke to outreach and state directors for Clinton to get a glimpse into #TeamClinton plans.
One thing that you immediately pick up about the Clinton campaign is the large and diverse number of African Americans on her staff. I spoke with Corey Dukes, Hillary for America Pennsylvania state director; Simone Ward, Clinton’s Florida state director; and Nadia Garnett, Clinton’s African-American Vote director for the entire country. Hillary Clinton actually hires African Americans to do something other than “African-American” outreach. She just happens to hire the most qualified, connected campaign consultants out there and puts them to work.
Clinton enters a campaign environment where the black vote is at one of its most delicate places in years. The rise and sustainability of the Black Lives Matter movement has raised African-American expectations of elected officials on one hand, and the possibility of a Trump presidency should drive black folks to the polls. However, when it comes to enthusiasm from black voters, Clinton is certainly ahead of John Kerry in 2004 but falls far behind Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Has that led her to campaign differently?
“I don’t know if anything is really different,” says Garnett. “She’s actively engaging in the community.”
Which is true—Hillary Clinton’s forays into sorority events, black churches and professional events have not received nearly as much attention from the press as her press conferences.
Said Ward: “I would just add to Nadia’s point, she’s [Clinton] talking about the issues that matter to the community. This secretary’s candidacy is about the future and the world we want to build. We have to make sure we have strong opportunities and jobs. To make sure the economy is sound. Especially coming out of the historic presidency of Barack Obama.”
In some respects, her campaign was being too humble. Clinton likely has the most African Americans on her campaign staff of any white Democratic presidential nominee in American history. This is no accident; with African-American women outvoting every other demographic in America in 2008 and 2012, having staffers who can connect with black voters is a must.
Which, of course, raises the question: Does the Clinton campaign have a threshold for black voter turnout? Is there a magic number needed to ensure that swing states like Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida stay in the Democratic column on Nov. 8?
According to Ward, there is no magic number. Clinton wants all the votes she can get, especially in the African-American community.
“Here in Florida, we’re not taking any votes for granted. Obama won by 1 percent with less than 74,000 votes; we know that came from communities of color, and especially the African-American community,” Ward said. She also pointed out that the campaign team in Florida looked like the black community in Florida, including Haitian, African and African-American volunteers and staff.
However, in other states, the process may be a little more difficult.
“Bad news is, we don’t have an extensive early vote opportunity for voters,” Dukes said. “We can’t generate a ‘Souls to the Polls’ effort like in other places. Absentee balloting [is allowed], but an excuse is required. We’re behind the curve on that in the state [Pennsylvania]. As a result, almost all of our votes come in on Nov. 8.”
It is almost pointless to contrast Clinton’s campaign for black votes with Trump’s, since 1) Trump’s campaign is run by racists who are openly hostile to African-American voters; and 2) he barely has a campaign staff on the ground. But it’s instructive to know that Clinton’s campaign doesn’t take Trump’s weaknesses as an excuse to take black votes for granted.
“You gotta earn it, right? It is a choice. Voters can stay home,” said Dukes. “We know we’re gonna get the vast majority of black voters, but 90 percent of what? Make that number as big as possible.”
CNN: Jason Johnson on New Polling in Presidential Race
On CNN, Morgan State professor Jason Johnson discussed the state of the 2016 presidential race with David Paleologos of Suffolk University.
On polling regarding the trustworthiness of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
On support for Donald Trump from retired military officers.
CNN: Jason Johnson on Donald Trump’s Address to Detroit Church
On CNN, Morgan State University professor Jason Johnson discussed Donald Trump’s visit to Great Faith Ministries, a predominantly African-American church in Detroit, Michigan.
On protests prior to the event.
On the potential impact of Donald Trump’s outreach to black voters
Dr. Jason Johnson provided analysis after Trump’s remarks, alongside CNN Political Analyst Ron Brownstein and Trump surrogate Kayleigh McEnany.
The Root: Donald Trump Meets With Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and the Joke Is on All of Us
You could not come up with a more desperate pair of political leaders than GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Trump has dug himself into a huge hole in the polls, and his pivot to African Americans has all the skill and grace of the new guy at the YMCA. His plans to reveal a “softer, gentler” immigration plan seemed questionable to supporters and detractors alike. Peña Nieto, who was elected in 2012, has been mired in scandals, student deaths, escaped drug lords and questions about his own résumé, and his approval rating is 23 percent.
Both of these men could use each other. Both of these men could have scored a win yesterday. Both of these men utterly failed and reminded everyone around the world exactly what bad leadership looks like no matter which side of the wall you’re on.
Trump has spent the entirety of his campaign insulting and demonizing people, but none have felt the wrath more than Mexico and Mexican Americans. Trump has called Mexicans rapists, murderers and bad business partners, and that was before he was the GOP nominee. His one consistent policy proposal—that a wall be built between the United States and Mexico and that Mexico pay for it—is a financial, foreign policy and human rights nightmare. The last three Mexican presidents have compared Trump to Adolf Hitler, with former President Vicente Fox (and George W. Bush BFF) saying that Mexico wasn’t building that “f–king wall.”
You can see why Trump needed Peña Nieto. He needed to show that he was tough and could stand up to a world leader, and that his plan to build a wall and stay tough on immigration had more weight to it than a chatroom rant. Why Peña Nieto invited Trump (and Hillary Clinton) to Mexico to meet is much less clear. While Peña Nieto’s approval ratings are in the toilet, Mexican presidents serve only one term (his is up in 2018); and while he might score some points for insulting Trump, giving the GOP nominee a platform to stand next to a world leader still tips the scales in Trump’s favor even if he got read for filth in front of a global audience.
In the end it didn’t matter because both leaders grossly failed the “Say it to my face” test that every world leader is supposed to be able to pass. After a private meeting, Peña Nieto gave a brief statement to the press, saying nothing about Trump calling Mexicans rapists or murderers or being bad business partners.
You know that feeling of disappointment you have when you see some black pundit go up against a Trump supporter on CNN and totally roll over? Multiply that by 120 million people in Mexico. When a reporter asked about the wall, Trump said they didn’t discuss potential payment for the border wall at all.
I’m sure that before this meeting, both leaders were all Key and Peele, telling everybody within earshot, “I’m gonna tell Trump/Peña Nieto—bitch!” but when the moment came, they choked. Peña Nieto can compare Trump to Hitler but had nothing to say when the man was 5 feet away from him. Trump can brag about making Mexico build a wall and pay for it but claims that he didn’t ask about the money when Peña Nieto was in front of him.
The fact that, hours later, Peña Nieto claimed (from the safety of Twitter) that he and Trump did discuss the wall and that he explicitly told Trump that Mexico wasn’t paying for it doesn’t give him back that moment. We’ll never know for sure who’s lying, but I wouldn’t put it past Peña Nieto to pull a Kim Kardashian and accidentally leak some hidden video of the conversation backing up his claims. Essentially, Donald Trump is Taylor Swift in this situation: Sad!
A few hours later, when Trump gave his immigration speech in Arizona, it was abundantly clear that he had learned no diplomacy or lessons in discernment from his meeting in Mexico. His “kinder, gentler” immigration plan in Arizona was nothing more than a more virulent version of his Republican National Convention speech, the one that barely gave him a bump in the polls.
You don’t need to have seen the speech—just know that David Duke said it was one of the best speeches he’d ever heard. What was missing from the speech were two key campaign moves that went relatively unnoticed. First, #TeamTrump quietly announced that they were backing out of speaking to a black church in Detroit. Second, his plan to make Mexico pay for the wall (whether it likes it or not) would require blocking money transfers from Mexican illegal immigrants and siphoning that money into a fund to build the wall; essentially, massive theft and an act of war.
This was about the saddest day in Western Hemisphere politics since early July, when theinternet mistakenly assumed that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Barack Obama and Peña Nieto were equals.Mexico clearly knew better. Yesterday was a crash course in how not to improve your campaign, how not to conduct foreign diplomacy and how not to expand your voting base. The Mexican people already knew that they’d have a less-than-stellar empty suit as president; hopefully Americans won’t have to get Trump in the White House to realize the same thing.
This article originally appeared online at The Root.