Getty/Brendan Smialowski President Donald Trump at a Black Economic Empowerment Event in Atlanta, Georgia in September 2020.
President Donald Trump spoke at a Blacks for Trump campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday, as he announced a potential second-term plan for “Black economic empowerment.” At one point, while Trump ranted about the media, the crowd of Black supporters began chanting, “12 more years.”
In a last-minute pitch to Black Americans, Trump promoted the “Platinum Plan,” which he said would make Juneteenth a national holiday, create more than 500,000 new Black-owned businesses and designate both the Ku Klux Klan and antifa as terrorist organizations.
Here’s what you need to know:
Trump Mocked the Media for Criticizing His Refusal to Commit to a Peaceful Transfer of Power & His Supporters Began a Chant of ’12 More Years’
“Will we be president in ten years? Only if we add a couple of terms,” said Trump just now in Atlanta, followed by chants of “12 more years!”
Trump was telling the crowd of supporters a story about an interest group coming to the White House to ask for more funding, and that he was able to pass the funding for 10 years through Congress, when he began to muse on the possibility of serving more than one more term.
“I said, ‘The only bad thing is, I like you people and I won’t see you for another 10 years,'” Trump said. “Let’s see, will we still be president in 10 years? Only if we, only if we add a couple more terms.”
As the crowd cheered, Trump gestured toward the media in the Cobb Galleria Centre.
“Now we have a story, there’s your breaking news,” he said, then apparently mimicking the media, “I told you, he’s a dictator. We’ve been … he won’t give up power. Under no circumstances will he give up power. He wants to serve at least two more terms.”
Waving his hand dismissively, Trump appeared to suggest his repeated claims that he deserves two more terms in office are a joke.
“Oh, that’s a big story,” he said. “You know, you can’t joke, because if you joke, they take it away. You know, a lot of times you’re a little sarcasm and you joke, but you’re being serious. And then you start laughing after, but they always cut it before the laughter. They cut it so they think he’s serious, he wants 12 more years. They start shouting, ’12 more years.'”
Supporters than began a repeated chant of “12 more years,” as Trump smiled and waved.
At the event — which you can watch in full here via C-SPAN — Trump also said claimed that Joe Biden had “spent his career hurting Black Americans” and that “racial justice begins with Joe Biden’s retirement from public life.”
Trump Also Said That Joe Biden ‘Doesn’t Know Black Americans Like I Do’ & Beto O’Rourke Would Be in Charge of Gun Control in a Biden Administration
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Trump spent a significant part of his speech attacking the Democratic Party — which Republicans now exclusively refer to as the “Democrat” party. Trump said that Democrats have no respect for Black Americans beyond getting their votes every four years.
“They stereotype you, they disrespect you and sell you out,” he said. “You’re only good for your six-month period, six months until the election. They want your vote, then they forget all about you. They’re gone, they’re gone.”
He also referenced Joe Biden’s viral gaffe over the summer in which the Democratic candidate told Charlamagne Tha God, “Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”
“He doesn’t know Black Americans like I do,” Trump said, adding that “racial justice begins with Joe Biden’s retirement from public life.”
Biden has announced his own plan to increase racial economic equality in the country as part of his “Build Back Better Plan” and insisted that Trump is America’s first racist president.
“We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed. They’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has,” Biden said in a July virtual town hall, as reported by the Washington Post.
GettyBeto O’Rourke
Trump also launched into an odd tirade against former Congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. Trump claimed that if Biden wins in November, O’Rourke would “get rid of” the Second Amendment, and seemed to suggest he at one point spoke to O’Rourke about his nickname.
“They’re gonna get rid of [the Second Amendment],” Trump said. “You know who they’re going to put in charge? Beto. Remember Beto? Beto. Beto O’Rourke. It’s a Spanish name. He needed the Spanish vote. He said, ‘I want Spanish.’ I said, ‘What about Hispanic?’ He said, ‘Spanish.’ I think he knows even less about it than perhaps I do.”
Trump is scheduled to hold another campaign rally in Newport News, Virginia, Friday night at 9 p.m., per his public schedule.
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