Trump 'has been a champion' for the Black community: Paris Dennard
President’s plan to help Black communities is 2nd-term agenda Americans should get behind, he says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“There’s no doubt” that President Trump “will go down as the greatest champion for the Black community since Abraham Lincoln,” Black Voices for Trump Advisory Board member Paris Dennard told “Fox & Friends” on Monday.
He added that the “facts” and all of his “accomplishments” since he was elected in 2016 shows that President Trump, who he called “an aspirational leader,” is a champion for the Black community.
“When I saw him on the campaign trail in 2016 making direct pushes to the Black community saying, … ‘I want to be a champion, I want to fight for you,’ I said, ‘This is a person who has the experience and the leadership and the capabilities to fight for our community,” Dennard said. “And he’s done just that.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“And so when I saw him keep all the promises that he’s made to us and do even more, like criminal justice reform, there’s no doubt in my mind that this president will go down as the greatest champion for the Black community since Abraham Lincoln,” he continued.
In 2018, President Trump signed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill, marking a major legislative victory on an issue that garnered bipartisan support. The First Step Act gave federal judges more leeway when sentencing some drug offenders and boosted prisoner rehabilitation efforts.
It incentivizes prisoners to participate in programs designed to reduce the risk of recidivism, with the reward being an earlier release to either home confinement or a halfway house to complete their sentence. This is not available to offenders who were also convicted of violent firearms offenses, sexual exploitation of children or high-level heroin and fentanyl dealing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TRUMP SAYS HE'S DONE MORE FOR BLACK AMERICA THAN ANY PRESIDENT OTHER THAN LINCOLN
The changes were aimed at addressing concerns that the nation's war on drugs has exploded the prison population without helping people prepare for their return to society.
Dennard said that President Trump “has led the way” for criminal justice reform by “righting the wrongs” from “the 1994 crime bill that Joe Biden wrote.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dennard also cited opportunity zones, tax cuts and deregulation as some of Trump’s accomplishments for the Black community.
He went on to point out Trump’s “historic support for historically Black colleges and universities” by “permanently funding them for ten years through the FUTURE Act.”
In 2019, President Trump signed H.R. 5363, the FUTURE Act, into law, which “permanently authorizes funding for minority-serving institutions of higher education and increases the authorization of appropriations” for student financial aid.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dennard also pointed to President Trump’s plan for Black America, which designates the KKK and Antifa as terrorist organizations and calls for making lynching a national hate crime, while pledging to increase access to capital in Black communities by nearly $500 billion.
Dennard said what’s referred to as the “Platinum Plan,” is “a specific plan targeted for the Black community, for Black economic empowerment.”
The president’s plan, according to the campaign, will increase access to capital in Black communities by almost $500 billion, help to create 500,000 new Black-owned businesses, and help to create 3 million new jobs for the Black community.
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“The president’s holistic plan is the specific second term agenda that all Black Americans, all Americans, should get behind,” Dennard said.