WATCH: Andrew Gillum and Sarah Isgur Wreck Bill Maher Claim That Trump SOTU Was Trying to Win ‘The Blacks’
Former Democratic Tallahassee Mayor and CNN contributor Andrew Gillum joined forces with Republican CNN commentator Sarah Isgur to disabuse Bill Maher of the notion that President Donald Trump’s State of the Union was about trying to win votes from “the blacks.”
On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the host brought up Trump’s State of the Union address, and in particular his highlighting of black guests and issues during the speech, and advanced the premise — popular with the political press — that Trump was appealing to black voters.
“State of the Union, I was surprised, I thought I was watching BET,” Maher said, adding “The whole thing seemed geared toward winning the black voter, right? I mean, he had the little girl who is going to go to a charter school, he called out the one black Republican senator Tim Scott, he had the Tuskegee airman, he cited a lot of stats about black unemployment being better, all this stuff.”
“Wow, the Democrats, Democrats their weak point is the South. They just write it off. They don’t even try,” Maher continued. “Trump is like what’s my weak point? Blacks? I’m going to get them. I got Melania back, I’m going to get them too.”
“I think there’s a question, though of whether politically he is trying to actually win black voters, or whether he wants to appear to his voters as if he’s trying to win black voters, which is different,” Isgur said.
“More specifically, I think he’s trying to say I got a black friend. He’s not trying to save everybody. Bill,” Gillum said.
“But he is trying to win that vote,” Maher said.
“I don’t think he is,” Gillum replied.
“No? You don’t think he’s trying to win the black vote?” Maher said.
“I think what he’s trying to do is show white women suburban white women, who have been fleeing the Republican party if you look at these recent elections where Democrats have won in places where we haven’t, he wants to show those folks that he is not as abominable as he is, that he is not an overt racist, that he can have a black friend,” Gillum replied.
“Andrew and I, we actually agreed that this is about winning suburban women, more than it is black voters,” Isgur said.
Watch the clip above via HBO.
