Speaking at a cigar bar in Philadelphia on Tuesday, a surrogate for Donald Trump made an unorthodox appeal to Black voters in the 21st century, suggesting life was better for them and their families when they were forced to attend separate schools and drink from separate water fountains.
"You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together," Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who is Black, said during a discussion with a right-wing sports reporter, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively. And then H.E.W., Lyndon Johnson — you go down that road, and now we are where we are."
Donalds was referring to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which was created in 1953 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Under President Lyndon Johnson, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race and efforts to block Black Americans from casting ballots, as well as a host of social welfare initiatives, such as Medicare.
In March, CNN described Donalds as one of Trump's "most trusted surrogates" and "widely viewed to be on Trump's sort list of vice presidential contenders."
Joining Donalds at Tuesday night's events, dubbed "Congress, Cognac and Cigars," was his a Black colleague, Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, who appeared earlier in the day at a Trump campaign event targeting Pennsylvania's African-American voters. He pointed to Black Americans' decisive shift to the Democratic Party around the time of the Civil Rights Act as a burden on today's electorate.
"The reason why Democrats have a hold on the Black community is because our parents' parents' parents keep telling us, 'You gotta vote Democrat,'" Hunt said. "It is up to us in this generation to say, 'Well, why?'"
Democrats were quick to seize on the remarks.
"It has come to my attention that a so-called leader has made the factually inaccurate statement that Black folks were better off during Jim Crow. That's an outlandish, outrageous and out-of-pocket observation," Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Wednesday. "We were not better off when people could be systematically lynched without consequence because of Jim Crow," he continued. "How dare you make such an ignorant observation. You better check yourself before you wreck yourself."
President Joe Biden's campaign also weighed in.
"If they didn’t know before, Trump and his team are showing Black voters what ‘Make America Great Again’ means: less freedom and fewer economic opportunities for our families," spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
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