Comedian Bill Maher and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith disputed claims Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump is a horrible “racist” based on their observations and personal experience with him.
Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris was partially fueled by increased support from Hispanic and black men. Maher and Smith, on “Club Random,” argued that Trump’s past relationships with black Americans suggest he is not motivated by racism.
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“So there are all these, you know, white boys are talking to me about Trump, and ‘He’s a terrible racist,’ and it’s like, ‘Well, how could the black people vote for him more each time?’ And, you know, they didn’t vote for him a lot more, but men did, okay? And I said, you know what? I don’t want to speak for all black people … You tell me if I was wrong or right,” Maher said. “I said, you know what I think black people think about Trump? Like, is he a racist? Yeah, but they think every white person is kind of a racist. Like, and do they think that white people, behind closed doors, talk like Trump? Yeah, he’s just a crazy person.”
“Being a black man, you don’t look at white people and automatically think they’re racist. You automatically know they’re different than you, that they think different than you, that they come from a different cultural background and experience things differently than they do,” Smith responded, asserting that Trump has not changed his rhetoric since becoming president.
“We know that the people that he was friends with all of these years, he talked just like that around y’all and y’all didn’t have no problem with it,” he said. “Don’t act like you have a problem now.”
Radio host Charlamagne Tha God argued in October that Trump’s history of associating with prominent black figures does not negate racism allegations against him. Maher, however, noted that Trump “had some genuine black friends and black folks who like him.”
“I wouldn’t call myself his friend by any stretch of the imagination back in the day. But I’ve told this on many occasions. I said this in my recent appearance on ‘The View’ and stuff like that. Trump and I were friendly before he ran for president. He used to have these boxing matches, particularly during the Tyson fights, at the Trump casinos,” Smith said. “He would be at the Knicks games and stuff like that. And if we’re being totally honest, all the brothers found him to be cool. They found him to be very cool. So, let’s be clear. Because he knew his sports, all right? He would say what he feel, he bucked the establishment, which we love, and we gravitated to that.”
“And also he was a certain age, and you get a certain like understanding that white men of that age … They’re going to be a little ‘Grandpa, we don’t say that anymore.’ But is he really, like, in his heart, like hateful? No,” Maher asserted. “I don’t think his motivation is ‘I don’t like black people.’ I think his motivation is ‘Everybody must love me.’”
Smith agreed, with Maher claiming Trump has more of a problem with “narcissism” than “racism.”
“I have never called him a racist. I have never spoken about him that way. Ever,” Smith asserted. “Not one time. Not one time. Because I knew him beforehand.”
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