Some are ‘putting more poison into the black community than any drug dealer’
“I would like to say to all the media assembled here,” began Raynard Jackson as he pointed his finger around the room then turned to the president.
“I wish they would quit lying about what you’ve done, specifically for the black community,” said Jackson, the president and CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, a lobbying firm based in the nation’s capital.
He referred to “liberal, radical journalists” such as MSNBC’s Joy Reid, CNN’s Don Lemon and Roland Martin.
Jackson said they’re “putting more poison into the black community than any drug dealer.”
He accused them of “spreading lies” about the economy, such as claiming the boom prior to the coronavirus lockdowns was a continuation of Barack Obama’s policies
“I have a degree in accounting,” said Jackson, who hosts an internet-based radio show on the U.S. Talk Network. “I keep up with the economy. They’re lying.”
Jackson asked Reid, Lemon and Martin why they’re afraid to have black Republicans on their shows “who know what they hell they’re talking about.”
Trump touted his success on issues important to the black community such as criminal justice and prison reform, and opportunity zones for business. He frequently has pointed to the lowest unemployment rate and job growth ever recorded for blacks, prior to the coronavirus shutdown, along with record support of historically black colleges and education-choice initiatives.
Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Human Development, said they were there to talk about “some of the concerns in the black community” in the wake of the death of George Floyd “that have risen to the point that people all around the world are making their voices heard.”
“This is an opportune time to do something about it,” Carson said, “because this administration already has established a record of solving problems — problems that people have just talked about for many years.”
Carson said Trump “has made it a priority to solve this problem.”
“We’re all going to be helping in that process, and there are many others out there, people of good will,” Carson said.
“There are some that just wait for anything to criticize,” he said. “But there are actually some people who actually want to see a solution, and I’ve had a chance to talk to many of them.”
He wants solutions that will get people out of poverty.
Carson said the fundamentals of the economy that provided the boom that benefited the black community are still in place as states emerge from the coronavirus lockdown.
Trump’s policy has been “a rising tide floats all boats,” Carson said, which is why he doesn’t “spend a lot of time with identity politics.”
“We want everybody to be successful,” he said.
Pastor Darrell Scott, co-founder of the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, said that during the coronavirus shutdown “we’ve pressed pause.”
“But we’re ready to push play now and continue in the positive initiatives regarding the black community,” he said.
Only choice is ‘left and further left
Sonnie Johnson, a writer and talk-radio host, said “the black community is not doing OK.”
She began by praising Trump for removing regulations and taxation that had “prevented our communities from being able to see sustainable growth … to get us out of generational poverty.”
Blaming progressive policies, she said blacks are “not OK when it comes to things like education.”
“All of these things have been under Democratic control for 60 years, and they are not going to change until we have a Republican Party that is willing to go into these communities and actually offer a choice, about how we can do things differently,” she said.
Johnson said that on the local level, the only choice blacks have had is “left and further left.”
However, she said, her generation has begun to “change the negative dynamics” on the critical issue of marriage and family.
Ja’Ron Smith, who has been an assistant to Trump for domestic policy since April 2019, emphasized that “it’s about results.”
“It’s not just about us talking here, it’s about what we’re going to produce out of this meeting,” he said.
‘Don’t think that you are alone’
Wayne DuPree, who hosts a podcast and serves as a board member of the National Diversity Coalition for Donald Trump, said he hears from many black callers to his program and “people who are on boards” who support the president.
“They know what happened in the Obama administration. They know what you’re doing. They also see what the media is doing to you,” he said to Trump.
“So, don’t think that you are alone. It’s just that they need to hear more from you,” DuPree said.
Trump agreed.
“It’s the only way you get through the media, because the media is almost 100% negative,” the president said.
Last Friday, Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll of likely voters showed a remarkable 41% of blacks approve of Trump’s performance.
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