'I'm gonna finish my sentence': CNN panelists clash over Trump's appeal to Black men
Former Democratic lawmaker Bakari Sellers and GOP operative Shermichael Singleton clashed on CNN over the Republican Party's efforts to win over Black men voters.
The conservative Singleton credited the GOP's outreach efforts for Donald Trump's election win, saying Republicans promised to "put men back to work," but Sellers disagreed.
"The GOP didn't actually say anything," Sellers said. "That's the irony in this whole thing. Kamala Harris actually put out an opportunity agenda and policy points specifically for Black men, talking to Black men about Black men."
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Singleton smirked and argued that Harris issued those policy proposals just two weeks ago, but Sellers challenged him to articulate Trump's specific appeal to Black men.
"You can point to me about the policy that Donald Trump or the Republican Party has put out geared towards Black men and I'll listen, but it doesn't exist," Sellers said. "My only point is, kind of to your point, I will give you credit for being partially correct this morning – this is my charity. Black men have said for a long time they've been ignored by both parties, so it gave a unique opportunity, and there are a lot of things about a Donald Trump presidency that we saw woo Black men, not a lot, but some. You're talking about six, seven, eight points here or there, which was enough particularly in states like North Carolina and Georgia, but it's this machismo or strength that Donald Trump exuded – it's not policy. The irony in this whole race, the great irony in this whole race is that he ran a race with no policy, he ran a race with no plan. She articulated plans and policies."
Conservative commentator Scott Jennings jumped in at that point, asking what that said about the message Democrats were selling.
"If Trump is so terrible, what is – I was just asking," Jennings said. "You were deeply involved in it, you tell me."
"I'm gonna finish my sentence," Sellers said. "What I was getting at is that the fundamentals of the race that we saw, we saw inflation, we saw crime, we saw this being a referendum on Joe Biden. The question was, who was going to be the incumbent in this race, and for a long period of time, the Harris campaign thought they could make Donald Trump the incumbent. They couldn't – they failed. This was a fundamental rebuke of the last four years in those issues, but when we're talking about Black men, and you can't – there is not a policy proposition or a policy point that Donald Trump put forth. What he did was, though, was say, 'I hear you, I speak for you,' etc. It was vibes on a higher level."
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