Trump's Remarks in Meeting with African American Leaders; February 28, 2020

[mahatmakanejeeves]

REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with African American Leaders
Issued on: February 28, 2020

Cabinet Room

February 27, 2020
5:22 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to thank you very much. We’re here with some of the black leaders of our country and — people that are highly respected and people that have done a fantastic job and, for the most part, have been working on this whole situation with me right from the beginning. And we’ve done a lot. We’ve done Opportunity Zones. We’ve done criminal justice reform. We’ve done things that people didn’t even think possible. Criminal justice reform — we’ve let a lot of great people out of jail. (Applause.)

And, you know, Alice Johnson is, really, just such a great example. A fine woman. And she doesn’t say she didn’t do it; she made a mistake. But she was in there for 22 years when we let her out, and she had practically another 20 left. And that’s not appropriate.

MS. KING: Her children grew up, her grandbabies.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I know. So incredible. And you couldn’t produce — there’s nobody is Hollywood that could have produced that last scene of her. That was the real deal — of her when she saw her kids. So it’s really a fantastic thing.

So what I think I do is I’d like to — for the media, I’d like to go around the room, and we can do just a quick introduction of each other.

And I’ll start with me. My name is Donald John Trump. (Laughter.) And I’m President of the United States. (Applause.)

PARTICIPANTS: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: We have a lot of great things in store and a lot of interesting times. And you’ve been seeing the polls. The polls have been incredible. We’ve had some polls with — and I could say “black,” I could say “African American,” or I could say both. But I’ll tell you what: The polls are at a level that people have never — I don’t think they’ve seen, in terms of Republican.

And I won’t be satisfied until I get 100 percent, because nobody has done more for black people than I have. Nobody has done more. (Applause.)

And so, I appreciate it. We’ve been in this together and what we’ve accomplished for black people — for the country, but for black people — has been unprecedented, I believe.

Terrence? Please.

MR. WILLIAMS: Well, I am comedian Terrence K. Williams, and I am sitting next to the greatest President since Abraham Lincoln! (Applause.) Yes.

{snip}

MR. SMITH: All right, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Rob Smith. I’m America’s favorite black gay Republican. (Laughter.) I had my second coming out a couple years ago in support of this administration and all the amazing things that are happening. So, Mr. President, I would like to thank you for having me at this table.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.)

{snip}

PASTOR WHITE: Mr. President, Pastor Paula White. It’s been my honor. And, Derrick, I won’t take it back any longer, but to stand with you for 19 years in life and watch you — whether it was at Trump Tower — invite people of all different walks of life, from the lowest to the highest in society, of every different type of person, and now to serve you in this administration, I agree: You are the greatest President, and will go down in history as you create history for all Americans. (Applause.)

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT:

{snip}

You know, something that happened recently that the press doesn’t write about — but, every year a group of wonderful people from the black colleges and universities would come up to my office. A lot of people — 40, 35, 50 one year. And after the second year, I said, “How come you keep coming back?” And they came back for money, Deneen. Money.

And I said, “Why do you have to come back? Other colleges have money. You don’t do — you don’t come back every year.” And one of the gentlemen, who is a great guy, from one of the schools — good school, very good school — he said, “We come back because we have to, because we need money. And we come back and other schools don’t have to because we — they want us to come back every single year. They want us to beg.” He used that word. “They want us to beg.”

PARTICIPANTS: Wow.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT:

{snip}

Also, what I want to do, though, is I want to thank the black people of America. Because, frankly, you people, what you’ve gone through over the years, and now you’re making a comeback like you’ve never — and I had a phrase — I had a phrase during speeches, during rallies, and I’d use it whenever I saw, whenever we had a lot of black people in there, okay? And I have to say, I’d go through a list: You had the worst crime. You had the lowest housing ownership. You had — and I’d read 10, 15, 20 points.

And, look, a couple of them — NBC just left because they don’t want to hear this because they don’t want — (laughter). She just left. No, she just left, from NBC — because it’s owned by Comcast. And they’re the racists because they’re (inaudible).

But I know this. I mean, she (inaudible). As I’m talking, I’m looking at her, she’s not writing anything down because she knows she’s not going to report any of this. She only wants to report something bad and there’s nothing bad in this room. What’s going on in this room is incredible. (Applause.)

PARTICIPANT: It’s amazing!

{snip}

MR. BREWER: I don’t want to interrupt, but I got to fade in because this is Black History Month. Man, you’re the first black President. (Applause.)

{snip}

END

6:23 P.M. EST

[Alliepoo]

1. Oh Freaking BARF!

Good grief. What a complete load of absolute crap!!! That is all!

[Karadeniz]

2. Who brainwashed those poor people?

[CaptYossarian]

3. They were promised cold hamberders.

Trump obviously doesn't know what Lincoln did for the blacks. He's too busy crafting those eternally long run-on sentences that need an intermission in the middle.

[Timmygoat]

4. If all people of color

Are called African American, why don't we call Trump German American.