Former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Biden's lead in the polls, fate of GOP police reform bill
New Fox News polls show presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden maintaining a lead over President Trump in some key battleground states; reaction from former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
Former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake accused Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson Thursday of taking presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's comments about black voters on a radio show last month "out of context."
“I think it is unfortunate that he took what Biden said when prompted by a radio host out of context and did so, unfortunately, to be more divisive,” Rawlings-Blake told “Special Report" host Bret Baier about Johnson's comments in a wide-ranging interview with Fox News.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News this week, Johnson said Biden's May 22 comment on "The Breakfast Club" radio show that if African-Americans "have a problem figuring out if you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black" was "the biggest turnoff I've heard from a politician in a long time."
"To have that mindset," Johnson told Fox News, "you must have the attitude that 'We, black Americans, we own you. We can take you for granted.' ... That, to me, shows you that black Americans are an appendage of a party.”
Biden said his comments to "Breakfast Club" host Charlamagne tha God were a "mistake" and chalked up the remark to the host being a "wise guy" and him responding in kind.
But Johnson said the former vice president gives him “a lot of pause” and questioned whether Biden believes African-Americans should have an “equal seat at the table in the Democratic Party.”
In response, Rawlings-Blake told Baier: “The Democratic Party has always been a place where African-Americans in my lifetime have found opportunities for leadership. I was the secretary for the DNC. There are so many that have gone before me."
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Rawlings-Blake also accused President Trump of spending more time defending the historical monuments to the Confederacy than speaking out against police brutality and racism.
“To say that something that was inartfully said on a talk show [shows] that African-Americans are an appendage of a party," she said. "I don’t believe that to be the case at all."
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