Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina on Thursday predicted that President Donald Trump will receive a significant increase in black support in this fall’s presidential election.
“President Trump will see a 50 percent increase in his African-American support. It will go from 8 percent in 2016 to a minimum of 12 percent in 2020,” Scott told Neil Cavuto on the Fox News show “Your World.”
“He may even get to 15 percent of the African-American vote,” Scott said. “And that is game over.”
Scott contrasted Trump with Democratic presidential candidates, particularly former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“Listen to what the Democrats are saying. They have top-tier candidates that say redlining was a good thing, having a negative impact on African-American homeownership,” he said, referring to practices by banks not to lend to certain low-income areas.
During Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate, Bloomberg’s past comments on the issue were attacked by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, according to NBC News.
“What is President Trump doing during the same time?” Scott said. “It’s simple. He had an executive order to increase affordability of home ownership, and African-American home ownership, since he took office, is up about 2 percent.”
“Think about having a top-tier Democratic candidate that talks about harassing African-American males through stop-and-frisk,” Scott said, referring to one of Bloomberg’s signature policies as New York City mayor.
“Compare that against President Trump’s criminal justice reform packages that are making the justice system more fair for African-Americans disproportionately than it has been in a long time — at least 30 years.”
Scott noted that the Trump administration has overseen the creation of 7 million new jobs, many of which are filled by black Americans as the black unemployment rate hits record lows.
