‘Statistics Don’t Lie!’: CNN Commentators Spar Over Trump’s Appeal to Black Voters

It’s been almost a week since Donald Trump shifted gears and started campaigning aggressively to voters of color, asking them what they have to lose by voting for him. Six days in and the topic is still very, very contentious. It’s all over the news, which is why CNN got together a roundtable panel of diverse experts to talk it out.

They sort of talked it out, but the mostly spoke over each other and got really worked up.

Paris Dennard, a Republican strategist who was a Director of Black Outreach under President George W. Bush, started off the segment optimistically by acknowledging that Trump is currently polling around 1% among black people and saying that he could “only go up” from there.

Hillary Clinton supporter Basil Smikle responded that Trump’s outreach felt “condescending,” and that was when the fights started. Dennard countered with “statistics don’t lie.”

Later, Sally Kohn questioned whether Trump has been delivering his appeals to black voters to audiences that are overwhelmingly white because he’s just trying to make white, suburban voters feel better about voting for someone who has said so many racist things.

Watch above to see the whole thing play out.

[image via screengrab]

Lindsey: Twitter. Facebook.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!