Lewandowski: Trump Doesn’t Speak to Black Community Anymore Because It Was ‘Not a Safe Environment’
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Monday on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 that it was understandable that Trump never speaks to black audiences, because violence broke out when he tried to speak in the city of Chicago.
“You know what’s amazing to me is that no one remembers that Donald Trump went to have a rally in Chicago at the university and do you remember what happened? It was so chaotic and it was so out of control that Secret Service and Chicago Police Department told him you could not get in and out of that facility safely and that rally was canceled,” the CNN contributor said.
Those comments sparked murmurs and consternation among the rest of the panel. “What does that have to do with the black community?” asked black conservative Tara Setmayer.
“Look, that is a black community,” Lewandowski said. “He went to the heart of Chicago to give a speech to the University of Chicago in a campus that is predominately African-American to make that argument. And you know what happened? The campus was overrun and it was not a safe environment.”
CNN’s Angela Rye countered that blacks are not monolithic, and not all black audiences are the same. “So whose fault is that that that particular event in Chicago was completely destroyed?” Lewandowski asked.
Setmayer also pointed out that Lewandowski was also misrepresenting Trump’s speech: “It was not to go there to speak to an audience of black folks there, it was to go to a predominantly white audience.” (Contrary to Lewandowski’s initial claim, only 8% of the UIC campus is African-American).
“That audience was not white,” Lewandowski retorted.
“Yes, it was!” Setmayer shot back.
“That event is open to everybody,” he said. “So there were no African-Americans inside that event? I could see them.”
Watch above, via CNN.
[Image via screengrab]
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