Now that President Donald Trump has smashed the media’s characterization of him as a racist after garnering more black and Latino votes than he did in 2016, commentators are now scrambling to figure out how it happened.
On Thursday, Al Sharpton of MSNBC said that Trump successfully appealed to the entrepreneurial spirit in those communities, admonishing Democrats for not doing the same.
“He has done better than, in my judgment, he should have with Black men and Hispanics, which means that we’ve got to really look in the civil rights community, both on the Latino and the African American side, on a real conversation in our communities on what it is to be different in terms of being entrepreneurial aspirants and being fair in terms of how we look from the whole,” Sharpton said on “Morning Joe.”
“I think he appealed to some that wanted to feel that they had to be a certain kind of way to be aspirational and that you can be that and still be centrists,” he continued.
On the issue of Joe Biden’s involvement in the 1994 crime bill, Sharpton said that too many did not understand that the former vice president was simply going along with what the leadership said at the time.
“I think that a lot of them bought into the false view they were putting out on Joe Biden with the crime bill rather than dealing with the fact that Joe Biden was going along with the majority of people, even in the Black leadership with the Black crime bill,” said Sharpton.
Going forward, Sharpton said that Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) are going to have to work to capture those communities if they win the White House.
“I really believe there is going to be a lot of work in those areas,” he said. “If we ignore it, or act like it doesn’t matter, I think is not wise and I think if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, if they’re successful, are going to have to really work.”
As noted by Fox News, Charles Blow of The New York Times was distraught over Trump’s gains with minorities.
“This is so personally devastating to me: the Black male vote for Trump INCREASED from 13% in 2016 to 18% this year. The Black female vote for Trump doubled from 4% in 2016 to 8% this year,” Blow tweeted. “Also, once again, exit polls show a majority of White women voting for Trump.”
“Also, the percentage of LGBT voting for Trump doubled from 2016. DOUBLED!!! This is why LGBT people of color don’t really trust the White gays. Yes, I said what I said. Period,” he continued. “Also, the percentage of Latinos and Asians voting for Trump INCREASED from 2016, according to exit polls. Yet more evidence that we can’t depend on the “browning of America” to dismantle White supremacy and erase anti-Blackness.”
RELATED: WALSH: Trump Massively Exceeded Expectations With Minority Voters. Here’s How He Did It.