All Donald Trump needs to win back the White House is for Black voters in battleground states to steer clear of the ballot box.
Washington Post columnist Colbert King cited stark numbers of 2016, when Trump handily defeated then Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The Black vote saw its “largest decline on record” dipping to 59.6% in 2016 from 66.6% in 2012, according to Pew Research.
“Obama got the turnout,” King wrote. “In 2016, Clinton got the shoulder.”
Indeed, King concurs, “Numbers tell the story.”
He then posits an array of states where Trump reigned supreme with the boost of Black voters deciding not to cast ballots.
* Michigan was won by 11,000 votes, but 277,000 eligible Black people didn’t vote.
* Wisconsin was won by 23,000 votes, but 93,000 eligible Black voters didn’t vote.
* Georgia was won by 200,000, but 530,000 eligible Black voters did not vote.
* North Carolina was won by 173,000 votes, but 233,000 Black voters did not vote.
And during a stop in Hershey, Pennsylvania, as part of Trump’s victory tour after the election, he appeared to show gratitude for the shrugged shoulder mindset of Black voters.
“They didn’t come out to vote for Hillary,” he said. “They didn’t come out.
“And that was a big — so thank you to the African American community.”
As for President Joe Biden, the columnist describes him as a “bland motivator who has yet to meet all the Black community’s basic needs” and “who can’t help that he’s not Obama.”
For King, there needs to be mores serious thought and talk about Biden being “hamstrung” by a “closely divided Senate, an extremist Republican House and a 24/7 opposition messaging campaign aimed at discouraging voting for someone of Biden’s age and political moderation” as well as “being given to the reactionary Republican candidates — as was true in 2016.”
