On Tuesday, President Trump granted pardons to seven people: Former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich; Edward DeBartolo Jr., Ariel Friedler, a technology entrepreneur; Tynice Nichole Hall; former New York City police commissioner Bernard B. Kerik; financier Michael R. Milken; Judith Negron; Crystal Munoz, and Angela Stanton-King.
Faux comedienne and Trump-hater extraordinaire Chelsea Handler took umbrage with the pardons, snapping on Twitter, “While our president exonerates criminals and releases them from jail, notice what color they all are.”
While our president exonerates criminals and releases them from jail, notice what color they all are.
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) February 18, 2020
She didn’t reckon with Stanton-King, who fired back a two-word message obliterating Handler: “I’m BLACK.”
I’m BLACK ☝🏽 https://t.co/eIZblVKpWM
— Angela Stanton-King (@theangiestanton) February 19, 2020
Stanton-King was not the only grantee of Trump’s pardons who didn’t fit Handler’s narrative; Tynice Hall, Judith Negron, and Crystal Munoz didn’t either.
Democrats have been eager to stifle any good feelings toward Trump among minority communities, portraying his good will toward them as a cynical ploy. Earlier this month Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ranted:
I think again Trump knows exactly what he is doing, um, he has started, Donald Trump has started giving out cash to black Americans at his rallies, um, this whole State of the Union was like a game show where he was handing out prizes and surprises and reality moments and um, and this is exactly his political agenda and this is, it’s not just for political reasons but one of the reasons why I find it so frustrating that the rights of people of color are constantly negotiated and on the chopping block in politics in general is this is one of the concerns because when suddenly the rights of immigrants are controversial or issues pertaining to black Americans are controversial, but issues facing white Americans are not controversial and they are bread and butter issues, this is what starts to happen in our political discourse.
And I think that um, we need to be very careful about this, um, because it’s extraordinarily deliberate and it’s being done with a very specific agenda, um, that this also is in line with the fact that Trump decided to make a kind of bogus criminal justice reform advertisement in the Super Bowl. He’s being very deliberate in trying to look like he’s being great for, um, the black community, for communities of color, etc.
The Daily Wire reported in late November that support for President Trump has been rising in the black community:
Two polls released in the last week have confirmed what Republicans hope and Democrats fear: support in the black community for President Trump is rising. On Monday, Rasmussen reports noted, “ICYMI: Last Friday we showed Black Likely Voter approval for @realDonaldTrump at 34%. We then found out that a recent widely quoted @EmersonPolling Registered Voters based poll showed Black Voter approval for @POTUS at 34.5%.” The Emerson Poll, released November 21, indeed showed Trump with 34.5% of black registered voter approval. RedState noted, “Thirty four percent approval for President Donald Trump. And that’s not an outlier with other Rasmussen tallies, the average has actually gone up since last year when it was in the 20s.”