WASHINGTON — Donald Trump warned during his debate with Joe Biden and again at a Friday rally that migrants were taking “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” from Americans, angering critics who called it a racist and insulting attempt to expand his appeal beyond his white conservative base.
While President Joe Biden’s halting debate performance on Thursday night stirred widespread concerns among fellow Democrats about his readiness, Trump also repeatedly made false claims and repeated conspiracy theories that he’s long promoted during his campaign.
Trump suggested without evidence that Democrats want migrants to displace Americans as voters, and he described the state of the nation under Biden as worse than during the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump has often downplayed the racist overtones of the march, once saying there were “fine people on both sides.”
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Trump’s depiction of a country on the brink, under siege from unfettered migration and beset by racial strife and economic chaos echoed his longstanding rhetoric about the state of the U.S. It’s a pessimistic vision that has long appealed to the GOP’s largely white, hard-right base but has also alienated other Americans, especially voters of color.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during Thursday’s presidential debate with President Joe Biden in Atlanta.
“The fact is that his big kill on the Black people is the millions of people that he’s allowed to come in through the border. They’re taking Black jobs now,” Trump said during the debate on CNN. “They’re taking Black jobs and they’re taking Hispanic jobs. And you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history,” he warned without specifying the danger.
Yet Trump and his allies believe that such rhetoric may hold greater appeal with Black and Hispanic communities this year dissatisfied with Biden’s performance in office. Trump repeated the comments during a rally Friday in Virginia.
The phrase “Black jobs” was widely condemned by Democrats and Black leaders as vague and insulting.
“I’m still wondering, what is a ‘Black job,’” Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, quipped on Friday during a news conference with former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams in Atlanta. Other prominent Biden allies including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Tx., Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., also condemned Trump’s words following the debate.
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