dailysignal--2020-10-29--Backlash Builds Against NYT for Hyping ‘Anonymous’ Author Miles Taylor as ‘Senior Administration Off

Backlash Builds Against NYT for Hyping ‘Anonymous’ Author Miles Taylor as ‘Senior Administration Official’

Journalists criticized The New York Times Wednesday for overhyping the unnamed author of “ Anonymous ” —Miles Taylor , the former chief of staff to a former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security .
Taylor , who wrote the 2018 New York Times op-ed “ Anonymous ” while part of President Donald Trump ’ s administration , didn ’ t even hold the agency chief of staff position at the time he wrote the op-ed .
The former DHS staffer revealed his identity Wednesday in a Medium post .
“ I saw Donald Trump prove he is a man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have resulted in leadership failures so significant that they can be measured in lost American lives , ” he wrote .
“ I witnessed Trump ’ s inability to do his job over the course of two-and-a-half years .
Everyone saw it , though most were hesitant to speak up for fear of reprisals.
” The New York Times faced a wave of criticism Wednesday over its handling of Taylor ’ s op-ed .
“ I also didn ’ t realize the definition of ‘ senior administration official ’ could be *this* expansive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , pointing out that Taylor wasn ’ t “ even an agency chief of staff at the time the op-ed ran.
” Bloomberg News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs retweeted Swan ’ s tweet with the caption : “ A lot of this reaction from senior Trump aides who work very closely with the president .
Some saying they barely knew Miles Taylor , and argue he wasn ’ t significant part of big decisions or meetings with Trump or [ Vice President Mike ] Pence.
” Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias suggested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obscured in order to make him sound “ more authoritative.
” “ There ’ s a legitimate role for anonymity in journalism but that op-ed embodied one of its worst uses , where you obscure the source of information primarily to make the source sound more authoritative than he really is , ” Yglesias tweeted .
“ The editor in chief of the New York Times had to have known for years that his paper was misleading the public on that op ed , ” tweeted the Washington Examiner ’ s Joe Simonson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the biggest pieces the paper ever published during the trump years and we find out days before the election , ” he added .
The Wall Street Journal ’ s Michael Bender added : “ I get it .
But there are *plenty* of Trump White House staff , current and former , who repeatedly wanted to go on background as a ‘ senior administration official , ’ or wanted colleagues to be referred to that way , only to be told no dice [ because ] … they didn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who left Trump ’ s administration in 2019 and is now a CNN contributor , endorsed 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden for president in August and is a frequent and public critic of Trump .
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience .
For licensing opportunities for this original content , email [ email protected ] .

Journalists criticized The New York Times Wednesday for overhyping the unnamed author of “Anonymous”—Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff to a former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Taylor, who wrote the 2018 New York Times op-ed “Anonymous” while part of President Donald Trump’s administration, didn’t even hold the agency chief of staff position at the time he wrote the op-ed.
The former DHS staffer revealed his identity Wednesday in a Medium post.
Donald Trump is a man without character. It’s why I wrote “A Warning”…and it’s why me & my colleagues have spoken out against him (in our own names) for months. It’s time for everyone to step out of the shadows. My statement: https://t.co/yuhTgZ4bkq — Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) October 28, 2020
“I saw Donald Trump prove he is a man without character, and his personal defects have resulted in leadership failures so significant that they can be measured in lost American lives,” he wrote. “I witnessed Trump’s inability to do his job over the course of two-and-a-half years. Everyone saw it, though most were hesitant to speak up for fear of reprisals.”
The New York Times faced a wave of criticism Wednesday over its handling of Taylor’s op-ed.
really a lot of very poor editorial decisions made at NYT opinion in the last few years https://t.co/JoUBiPAAeX — Josh Barro (@jbarro) October 28, 2020
“I also didn’t realize the definition of ‘senior administration official’ could be *this* expansive,” tweeted Axios’ Jonathan Swan, pointing out that Taylor wasn’t “even an agency chief of staff at the time the op-ed ran.”
Bloomberg News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs retweeted Swan’s tweet with the caption: “A lot of this reaction from senior Trump aides who work very closely with the president. Some saying they barely knew Miles Taylor, and argue he wasn’t significant part of big decisions or meetings with Trump or [Vice President Mike] Pence.”
Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias suggested that Taylor’s identity was intentionally obscured in order to make him sound “more authoritative.”
“There’s a legitimate role for anonymity in journalism but that op-ed embodied one of its worst uses, where you obscure the source of information primarily to make the source sound more authoritative than he really is,” Yglesias tweeted.
The anonymity in the original op-ed combined with these paragraphs is used to create the false impression that we are reading the thoughts of a cabinet officer with direct knowledge of these conversations, not a Schedule C rehashing press reports. pic.twitter.com/c4b1erqJWJ — Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 28, 2020
“The editor in chief of the New York Times had to have known for years that his paper was misleading the public on that op ed,” tweeted the Washington Examiner’s Joe Simonson. “Absolutely nuts.”
“Probably one of the biggest pieces the paper ever published during the trump years and we find out days before the election,” he added.
The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender added: “I get it. But there are *plenty* of Trump White House staff, current and former, who repeatedly wanted to go on background as a ‘senior administration official,’ or wanted colleagues to be referred to that way, only to be told no dice [because] … they didn’t hold a senior job.”
Taylor, who left Trump’s administration in 2019 and is now a CNN contributor, endorsed 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden for president in August and is a frequent and public critic of Trump.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


dailysignal--2020-10-30--Shut Down DC Targets Conservative Organizations as ‘Trump Boosters’

Shut Down D.C. , a group that says it uses “ strategic direct action to advance justice and hold officials accountable , ” is targeting at least 27 conservative organizations in the Washington metro area as Election Day approaches .
An interactive map from Shut Down D.C. lists as “ Trump boosters ” a range of organizations including The Heritage Foundation , the parent organization of The Daily Signal .
Other groups listed include Americans for Prosperity , Competitive Enterprise Institute , FreedomWorks , Leadership Institute , National Taxpayers Union , Republican Jewish Coalition , and UrbanCURE .
( The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Down D.C. ’ s map contains the address , phone number , and website for each listed group .
It also shows the location of media organizations , technology companies , and government offices in Washington , D.C .
The group ’ s website boasts that “ we ’ re getting ready for an uprising .
Now ’ s the time to get involved so we ’ re ready to hit the streets.
” Shut Down D.C. ’ s election-week plan includes three phases : assembling on Nov. 3 at Black Lives Matter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Nov. 4-7 , and targeting members of Congress when they return to Washington on Nov. 8 .
“ If Trump is trying to launch a coup , that ’ s no time for business as usual , ” the website warns .
“ Affinity groups may want to start now to plan actions that confronting ( sic ) targets who need to be disrupted regardless of what is playing out with the vote count ( Department of Justice , ICE , RNC , etc . )
.
” On Friday , Shut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ account called Earth Guardians that said : “ If you ’ re planning on taking to the streets on election day , @ ShutDown_DC has lots of trainings to make sure you have the tools to stay safe and knowledgable [ sic ] of your rights .
Check out the list of trainings below .
https : //shutdowndc.org/calendar # shutdowndc # earthguardians.
” On Facebook , the organization features an event called “ DC Street Smarts Direct Action Training , ” which says : It also prompts those interested to register at this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ training and other logistical information .
In September 2019 , Shut Down D.C. staged climate protests in the nation ’ s capital in conjunction with world leaders gathering in New York City as part of the U.N .
Climate Action Summit .
The Daily Signal previously reported that “ these activists took to the streets … to dance and shout their way to ‘ climate justice.
’ ” During that protest , Shut Down D.C. blocked streets to stop traffic and activists held banners that stretched across an entire road , The Daily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ methods to make sure no one missed their demonstration .
In a statement provided Friday to The Daily Signal in response to an inquiry , Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Alaina Gertz wrote : Bowser ’ s office did not respond to The Daily Signal ’ s request for comment on Shut Down D.C. ’ s guide to “ Trump boosters ” by publication deadline .
The Washington Post reported Friday that Bowser “ said the District ’ s public safety officials have been discussing plans for post-election unrest for many weeks if not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of “ Trump boosters ” from the Shut Down D.C. map :

Shut Down D.C., a progressive group that says it uses “strategic direct action to advance justice and hold officials accountable,” is targeting at least 27 conservative organizations in the Washington metro area as Election Day approaches.
An interactive map from Shut Down D.C. lists as “Trump boosters” a range of organizations, including The Heritage Foundation, the parent organization of The Daily Signal.
Other groups listed include Americans for Prosperity, Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, Leadership Institute, National Taxpayers Union, Republican Jewish Coalition, and UrbanCURE. (The complete list is below.)
Shut Down D.C.’s map contains the address, phone number, and website for each listed group. It also shows the location of media organizations, technology companies, and government offices in Washington, D.C.
The left-wing group’s website boasts that “we’re getting ready for an uprising. Now’s the time to get involved so we’re ready to hit the streets.”
Shut Down D.C.’s election week plan includes three phases: assembling on Nov. 3 at Black Lives Matter Plaza, taking action in the streets from Nov. 4-7, and targeting members of Congress when they return to Washington on Nov. 8.
“Affinity groups may want to start now to plan actions that confronting [sic] targets who need to be disrupted regardless of what is playing out with the vote count (Department of Justice, ICE, RNC, etc.),” the website warns.
Just a casual map of DC showing different choke points and locations to shut down in case one major political party doesn’t win the White House. https://t.co/Qdr4pXAueP — Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) October 29, 2020
On Friday, Shut Down D.C. retweeted a tweet from an account called Earth Guardians that said: “If you’re planning on taking to the streets on election day, @ShutDown_DC has lots of trainings to make sure you have the tools to stay safe and knowledgable [sic] of your rights. Check out the list of trainings below. https://shutdowndc.org/calendar #shutdowndc #earthguardians.”
On Facebook, the organization features an event called “DC Street Smarts Direct Action Training,” which says:
Join ShutDownDC for a direct action and street smarts training! We’ll cover the basics of working together in small groups, preparing for direct action, and staying healthy and safe in the streets. This session will be entirely in person.
It also prompts those interested to register at this link to receive location information for the training and other logistical information.
In September 2019, Shut Down D.C. staged climate protests in the nation’s capital in conjunction with world leaders gathering in New York City as part of the U.N. Climate Action Summit. The Daily Signal previously reported that “these activists took to the streets … to dance and shout their way to ‘climate justice.’”
During that protest, Shut Down D.C. blocked streets to stop traffic and activists held banners that stretched across an entire road, The Daily Signal reported. Others used more creative methods to make sure no one missed their demonstration.
In a statement provided Friday to The Daily Signal in response to an inquiry, Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Alaina Gertz wrote:
In regards to public safety planning, MPD does not discuss operational tactics; however, our Special Operations Division is equipped to handle First Amendment assemblies of any stature. Also, Chief [Peter] Newsham and Mayor [Muriel] Bowser provided additional guidance to the city’s preparations for the election at the press conference yesterday.
Bowser’s office did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on Shut Down D.C.’s guide to “Trump boosters” by publication deadline.
The Washington Post reported Friday that Bowser “said the District’s public safety officials have been discussing plans for post-election unrest for many weeks if not months.”
Here is the complete list of “Trump boosters” from the Shut Down D.C. map:


dailysignal--2020-11-01--New Price Transparency Rule Will Help Transform America’s Health Care System

There is hope for controlling health care costs and improving quality .
The Trump administration finalized a bold reform on health care price transparency this past week .
It is a powerful step forward in lowering costs and improving health care quality .
Health insurance companies will now be required to disclose the price they pay for health care services and prescription drugs , as well as report the estimated out-of-pocket expenses a patient will be expected to pay prior to receiving care .
You might ask , “ Why was this not done previously ?
” Well , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a reason : Policymakers have often ignored the power of consumer choice and real market competition .
Instead , government officials have tried for decades to repair America ’ s broken health care delivery system through legislation and public policy .
While these have been generally well-intentioned efforts , they have nonetheless fallen woefully short of achieving their objectives .
Meanwhile , doctors have been deeply frustrated – and patients have been hurting – from the impact of skyrocketing health care costs and an uneven quality of care throughout the health care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place within a framework that puts third parties between patients and doctors in ways that often undermine their ability to work together—at a cost of more than $ 3.6 trillion annually .
This time is different .
The Trump administration ’ s health care price transparency reform will help drive market competition among health insurance companies , health care systems , physicians , and other health care professionals .
This will directly benefit patients by helping to drive down prices and improve quality .
But how will this reallywork to improve the care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ previously were in the dark about the cost of their health care—even when they invested a considerable amount of their income in expensive health care plans—will now be provided real-time , personalized insights into service prices and out-of-pocket costs .
This will allow patients , or health care consumers , to truly shop around for certain health care services that they need to make fully informed decisions .
Of course , patients were previously allowed to “ shop ” around .
But how could they possibly be expected to do that effectively when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of focusing on the necessary information needed to make appropriate health care decisions—such price and quality—patients have been forced to rely on what they see in marketing campaigns .
The information seen on billboards or the TV often falls far short of the kind of information that is necessary for persons to make decisions that impact their health and that of their families .
With the administration ’ s reforms , health care plans and providers will need to win over patients by demonstrating their true worth through actionable data for “ shoppable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this new transparency program further empower patients today , it will also push the boundaries of health care innovation tomorrow .
Innovators will clamor for the chance to be the one that patients turn to when they want to access and compare prices easily and efficiently .
Additionally , health care providers will need to innovate to showcase their added value and “ one up ” their competitors .
If they don ’ t , the market will react and the some of the worst performers in the marketplace may fizzle out .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ further transparency .
While prices are important pieces to the health care transformation puzzle , transparent clinical outcomes are also crucial to fixing our health care system .
As policymakers lift the veil on previously “ secret ” prices , public pressure will mount on high-priced health systems and physicians to demonstrate their value to the everyday patient .
Ultimately , this competition will likely lead to greater transparency in the clinical outcomes that matter most to patients , further driving our health care delivery systems to reward value .
While we all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harsh reality is that there are no simple solutions .
The Trump administration ’ s reform is , however , a helpful step .
This reform on price transparency related to insurers joins another effort to bring price transparency to hospitals .
In both cases , Americans will be the winners when these reforms help to drive prices down , improve quality , and re-establish the delivery of American health care on the basis of the patient-physician relationship .

There is hope for controlling health care costs and improving quality.
The Trump administration finalized a bold reform on health care price transparency this past week. It is a powerful step forward in lowering costs and improving health care quality.
Health insurance companies will now be required to disclose the price they pay for health care services and prescription drugs, as well as report the estimated out-of-pocket expenses a patient will be expected to pay prior to receiving care.
You might ask, “Why was this not done previously?” Well, we are right there with you!
There is a reason: Policymakers have often ignored the power of consumer choice and real market competition. Instead, government officials have tried for decades to repair America’s broken health care delivery system through legislation and public policy. While these have been generally well-intentioned efforts, they have nonetheless fallen woefully short of achieving their objectives.
Meanwhile, doctors have been deeply frustrated – and patients have been hurting – from the impact of skyrocketing health care costs and an uneven quality of care throughout the health care delivery system. Policy failures have taken place within a framework that puts third parties between patients and doctors in ways that often undermine their ability to work together—at a cost of more than $3.6 trillion annually.
This time is different. The Trump administration’s health care price transparency reform will help drive market competition among health insurance companies, health care systems, physicians, and other health care professionals. This will directly benefit patients by helping to drive down prices and improve quality.
But how will this really work to improve the care provided to everyday Americans?
Patients who previously were in the dark about the cost of their health care—even when they invested a considerable amount of their income in expensive health care plans—will now be provided real-time, personalized insights into service prices and out-of-pocket costs. This will allow patients, or health care consumers, to truly shop around for certain needed health care services in a much more informed manner.
Of course, patients were previously allowed to “shop” around. But how could they possibly be expected to do that effectively when the prices were a mystery?
Instead of focusing on the necessary information needed to make appropriate health care decisions—such as price and quality—patients have been forced to rely on what they see in marketing campaigns. The information seen on billboards or the TV often falls far short of the kind of information that is necessary for persons to make decisions that impact their health and that of their families.
With the administration’s reforms, health care plans and providers will need to win over patients by demonstrating their true worth through actionable data for “shoppable” medical services.
Not only will this new transparency program further empower patients today, it will also push the boundaries of health care innovation tomorrow. Innovators will clamor for the chance to be the one that patients turn to when they want to access and compare prices easily and efficiently.
Additionally, health care providers will need to innovate to showcase their added value and “one up” their competitors. If they don’t, the market will react and the some of the worst performers in the marketplace may fizzle out.
This reform also sets the stage for further transparency. While prices are important pieces to the health care transformation puzzle, transparent clinical outcomes are also crucial to fixing our health care system. As policymakers lift the veil on previously “secret” prices, public pressure will mount on high-priced health systems and physicians to demonstrate their value to the everyday patient.
Ultimately, this competition will likely lead to greater transparency in the clinical outcomes that matter most to patients, further driving our health care delivery systems to reward value.
While we all like easy health care fixes, the harsh reality is that there are no simple solutions. The Trump administration’s reform is, however, a helpful step. This reform on price transparency related to insurers joins another effort to bring price transparency to hospitals. In both cases, Americans will be the winners when these reforms help to drive prices down, improve quality, and re-establish the delivery of American health care on the basis of the patient-physician relationship.


dailysignal--2020-11-03--I Visited DC on Eve of the Election. This Is What I Saw.

As I drove to work in D.C. on Monday morning , I noticed the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ’ headquarters ’ ground floor windows were all boarded up .
Curious what the rest of the city looked like , two of my colleagues and I hopped in the car and took a drive through the nation ’ s capital .
We started on H Street , a popular strip of restaurants and stores in the city , and slowly made our way over to the White House .
I was expecting to see a few businesses with plywood over their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see what could be described as a city preparing to come under attack .
Everywhere I looked , from the McDonald ’ s restaurant a few blocks from the White House to the Walgreens drug store in Chinatown , there were boards covering glass windows .
Workers were busily installing the plywood and reinforcing many of the boards with two-by-four lumber .
I live outside the District , in Northern Virginia , but my colleague Lauren Evans , Heritage Foundation ’ s multimedia manager and co-host of “ Problematic Women ” podcast , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she honestly was not surprised to see businesses bracing for the worst after the unrest that took place in Washington , D.C. earlier this year .
“ This summer , when there were riots in the city , I walked around those same parts of town , and those same buildings were boarded up , ” Evans said .
What would have appeared bizarre only a year ago now feels somewhat normal to locals .
In the days following George Floyd ’ s death on May 25 , rioters flooded the streets of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and American flags .
They bashed windows and looted shops in the streets not far from the White House .
“ It ’ s a sad fact that boarding up businesses seems like a norm in D.C. , ” Evans told me after our drive through the city .
Sadly , the nation ’ s capital is not the only city bracing for violence after the election .
New York City , Los Angeles , Chicago , and others are anticipating rioters will become violent even as election results begin to roll in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ am both angered and heartbroken by what I see .
My generation can do better than this .
So many of those wielding baseball bats to break windows and steal whatever they can from businesses claim to be standing for justice— for a better world .
They have bought into a lie .
Violence and hatred will only reap more of the same .
Much of America ’ s future may depend not only on the results of the election , but also upon how we as a people choose to respond to @ @ @

As I drove to work in D.C. on Monday morning, I noticed the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ headquarters’ ground floor windows were all boarded up. Curious what the rest of the city looked like, two of my colleagues and I hopped in the car and took a drive through the nation’s capital.
We started on H Street, a popular strip of restaurants and stores in the city, and slowly made our way over to the White House.
I was expecting to see a few businesses with plywood over their windows but I did not anticipate to see what could be described as a city preparing to come under attack.
Everywhere I looked, from the McDonald’s restaurant a few blocks from the White House to the Walgreens drugstore in Chinatown, there were boards covering glass windows.
Workers were busily installing the plywood and reinforcing many of the boards with two-by-four lumber.
I live outside the District, in Northern Virginia, but my colleague Lauren Evans, The Heritage Foundation’s multimedia manager and co-host of the “Problematic Women” podcast, lives in the city. She said she honestly was not surprised to see businesses bracing for the worst after the unrest that took place in Washington, D.C., earlier this year.
“This summer, when there were riots in the city, I walked around those same parts of town, and those same buildings were boarded up,” Evans said.
What would have appeared bizarre only a year ago now feels somewhat normal to locals.
In the days following George Floyd’s death on May 25, rioters flooded the streets of D.C., burning cars, buildings, and American flags. They bashed windows and looted shops in the streets not far from the White House.
“It’s a sad fact that boarding up businesses seems like a norm in D.C.,” Evans told me after our drive through the city.
Sadly, the nation’s capital is not the only city bracing for violence after the election. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and others are anticipating rioters will become violent even as election results begin to roll in.
Speaking as a millennial, I am both angered and heartbroken by what I see. My generation can do better than this.
So many of those wielding baseball bats to break windows and steal whatever they can from businesses claim to be standing for justice—for a better world. They have bought into a lie.
Violence and hatred will only reap more of the same.
Much of America’s future may depend not only on the results of the election, but also upon how we as a people choose to respond to those results.


dailysignal--2020-11-02--18 Photos of Businesses Bracing for Post-Election Violence

Businesses in cities around America are prepared for violence and looting following Tuesday ’ s election .
Stops , restaurants @ @ @ @ @ Washington , D.C. , New York City , and Los Angelos have spent time over @ @ @ @ @ boards over windows and doors to deter vandals from breaking in .
Some residents in @ @ @ @ @ to stockpile food in case it is not safe to go out in the days @ @ @ @ @ Washington University in D.C. emailed their students and ask them to consider stockpiling food and @ @ @ @ @ the unrest .
“ We suggest preparing for the Election Day period as you would @ @ @ @ @ snowstorm that would prevent you from going outside for several days to grab food or @ @ @ @ @ Anthony , the director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities at George Washington @ @ @ @ @ email to students , per student newspaper The GW Hatchet .
Here are 18 photos @ @ @ @ @ unrest that may follow the Nov. 3 election .

Businesses in cities around America are prepared for violence and looting following Tuesday’s election.
Shops, restaurants, and other businesses in Washington, D.C.; New York City; and Los Angeles have spent time over the past several days installing boards over windows and doors to deter vandals from breaking in.
Some residents in D.C. are even being encouraged to stockpile food in case it is not safe to go out in the days following the election.
George Washington University in D.C. emailed its students and asked them to consider stockpiling food and other goods in preparation for the unrest.
“We suggest preparing for the Election Day period as you would for a hurricane or a snowstorm that would prevent you from going outside for several days to grab food or order takeout,” Christy Anthony, the director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities at George Washington University, wrote in an email to students, per student newspaper The GW Hatchet.
Here are 18 photos of businesses preparing for the unrest that may follow the Nov. 3 election.
Workers cover the windows of a Vivienne Westwood designer clothing store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles Oct. 30 (Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
Carpenters board up a Blue Mercury store located on 6th Avenue in New York City Oct. 30. (Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
A woman takes a photograph of a shop that is boarded in Washington, D.C., Nov. 2. (Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
People walk by a boarded-up store in Beverly Hills Nov. 1. (Photo: Chris Delmas/AFP/ Getty Images)
Carpenters board up a Forever 21 store in New York City’s Times Square Nov. 1. (Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
A person adds protective wood boards to the windows of a CVS Pharmacy near the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 28. (Photo: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
The Coach store in Beverly Hills is seen boarded up Nov. 1. (Photo: Chris Delmas/AFP/Getty Images)
Workers board the windows of a McDonald’s in Washington, D.C., Nov. 2. (Photo: Yegor Aleyev/TASS/Getty Images)
Workers board up the La Perla store in Beverly Hills Nov. 1. (Photo: Chris Delmas/AFP/Getty Images)
Temporary wooden panels protect shop windows and facades in New York City Nov. 2. (Photo: Christina Horsten/picture alliance/Getty Images)
Workers put plywood over the windows of a restaurant in Washington, D.C., Nov. 2. (Photo: Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images)
A woman walks by a boarded-up Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City Nov. 1. (Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
A worker puts boards over the windows of a Starbucks location near the White House in Washington, D.C., Oct. 31. (Photo: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images)
Workers board up windows down 5th Avenue in New York City Nov. 2. (Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Workers in the Soho area of New York City board up shop windows Nov. 2. (Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
Workers cover shop windows with plywood panels in Washington, D.C., Oct. 31. (Photo: Yegor Aleyev/Tass/Getty Images)


dailysignal--2020-11-02--Obama or Trump: Who Has Done More for Blacks in America? Author Keeps Score

Clarence McKee has worked in public policy and media for decades , including service with the Reagan administration .
McKee , author of the book “ How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It : The Dirty Little Secret That the Media Won ’ t Tell You , ” says he closely observed actions taken by President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump to help the black community .
The results speak for themselves , he says .
McKee joins “ The Daily Signal Podcast ” to break down the ways in which he says Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ African Americans .
Also on today ’ s show , we read your letters to the editor and we share a good news story about a 10-year-old boy who started an initiative to spread more kindness in our world .
Now he is on a mission to provide 100,000 people with a free meal this fall .
Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript .
“ The Daily Signal Podcast ” is available on Ricochet , Apple Podcasts , Pippa , Google Play , and Stitcher .
All of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
If you like what you hear , please leave a review .
You also may leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [ email protected ] Enjoy the show !
Virginia Allen : I am joined by Clarence McKee , president and founder of McKee Communications Inc. and author of the book “ How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It.
” Clarence , welcome to the show .
Clarence McKee : My pleasure , Virginia .
Thank you for inviting me , it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s great to have you here and discuss your book , which I was looking at the endorsements of the book and they are quite impressive .
Alveda King has endorsed the book , as well as Lt. Col. Allen West ; the former lieutenant governor of Florida , Jennifer Carroll ; the chairman of BlakPac , George Farrell .
Really impressive to see all the individuals that have spoken so highly of this book .
And it really came from many of the blogs that you ’ ve written @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So if you could just talk a little bit about what prompted you to begin writing about both President [ Donald ] Trump and President [ Barack ] Obama and what they have and haven ’ t done for the black community .
McKee : Well , it started—thank you for the mention of it in my Newsmax blog—as I went back over those , and as I was writing them as well in real time , they ’ re all real time , about situations going on at that time regarding Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economy , race , baiting , school choice , things of that sort .
And I looked back and I said , “ What did the president—the first black president of United States , who everybody was very , in the black community , pleased and honored … “ We had a black president , I disagreed with his philosophy , but I was glad , it was an honor to have a black president because it says a lot about the United States .
But then I said , “ Well , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what did that mean ?
” I compared it then to some issues of importance to the black community .
And I said , “ Well , he didn ’ t do much.
” And then came across a Gallup study in 2016 saying that 52 % of the black population , of those surveyed , didn ’ t think he had done enough .
So that ’ s why I said , “ I better write this down and get a lot of things off of my chest.
” And I looked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , “ Wow , he ’ s doing a lot more when he ’ s [ not ] getting any credit for it at all.
” Because Obama ’ s held up on his pedestal by the black civil rights leadership , and the press knows that dirty little secret , the media won ’ t tell anybody that .
What did he do for blacks ?
Not much .
Allen : We are talking with Clarence McKee author of the book “ How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you ’ ve worked in the field of public policy for a very long time .
You served in the Reagan-Bush administration .
You ’ ve also worked in the news industry for many , many years .
So you ’ ve really followed many , many presidential administrations very closely .
So when President Obama was elected , what were your expectations for his presidency ?
McKee : Well , I thought , first of all , being from the city of Chicago , that he would immediately have his Department of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I call it mass murders going on in that city .
I think , gosh , since 2000 , there ’ ve been more people killed there than in Afghanistan .
I thought that would be an issue .
I thought that schools would be an issue .
And then it turns out that he never addressed that , he went right to helping groups of people .
Blacks were his main constituency , however , he supported the gay rights movement , which is fine .
He helped on same-sex marriage in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He helped big time on the abortion front , Planned Parenthood , and he wrote in the same big pocket .
Those groups got attention .
Illegal aliens , he helped them too .
But blacks didn ’ t get any attention .
It was kind of [ like he ] took us for granted , and only came up to help black people and get into race when it was beneficial to him .
Allen : So when you look back on Obama ’ s eight years in office , what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as you went back and kind of reviewed those years and said , “ Wait a second , what did President Obama do for the black community ?
” , what were some of those things that maybe stood out to you or surprised you ?
McKee : It ’ s more the surprise .
It ’ s more of what he did not do , as more of the positions he took .
And that ’ s why there was such a striking comparison between him and what I was seeing in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Just take one , just take school choice .
I mean , it ’ s a great program , it helps a lot of kids trapped in inner-city schools .
The first thing Obama did when he got into Washington , after he put his kids in a private school , is he zeroed out of the budget money for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program , which was a program started by George W. Bush to help poor kids go to private schools .
Well , he got rid of it .
Why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It was put back , thanks to the Republican Congress , but he was against that , which to me , as I said in one article , was throwing blacks under the bus .
That was the first thing .
And there [ are ] several others I ’ m going to get into it .
But school choice was the big one .
It means more to a lot of blacks in this country than a lot of other issues ; meant a lot in Florida .
Allen : Yeah , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at The Heritage Foundation we are so passionate about , and is such a critical topic .
I do want to ask you that same question , though , of expectations for President Trump .
What were you expecting to see from him when he took office four years ago ?
McKee : Trump had a vision and he said , “ I want to help the black community.
” Plus , his economic policies on jobs and turning things around .
It was the height of the Obama administration , you had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And so Trump was wanting to turn the country around and get America moving again .
That ’ s what I was expecting .
And that ’ s exactly what we got .
Allen : Let ’ s get in a little bit more to that economic policy and how specifically his economic policies have been so beneficial to the African American community .
McKee : You know the old expression , Virginia , “ A rising tide lifts all boats ?
” Allen : Yes .
McKee : That ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this , that the rising economic tide pre-pandemic lifted a lot of black boats with the rest of the country .
You got 5.4 % black unemployment back in August [ 2019 ] .
And if you take the last three quarters of last year , up through February , it was about 5.6 % .
That ’ s phenomenal .
Economically , lower-wage , low-income people , lower-skilled persons , they got wage increases greater than their supervisors in terms of percentages—1.6 million blacks getting off of food stamps , all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , what else in the economy ?
… Let me put it down to a community level , cutting back regulations .
If you have a barbershop and you ’ re a self-employed person , regulations can kill you .
Same thing at a national level .
When the president cut regulations in energy and all these other companies , it freed up opportunities for companies to give jobs and get jobs .
That way things got so good for everybody .
The tax cuts .
I think the Council of Economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trillion came back into this country and companies could hire people .
That was very , very important .
The economy was the basis for the whole recovery and it looks like it ’ s going back to that now after the pandemic .
Allen : Yeah , it ’ s been encouraging to see some of that movement already , like you say , going in the right direction .
As you look back on these past four years , what maybe is to you the most significant impact Trump has had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Caring and actually moving on his promises .
You know , if you take a look at eight years of Obama , the only thing that they did , the Democrats , they bring up racism every single time as the election , because they haven ’ t offered the black community anything else .
So they fall back on this racism thing .
And it ’ s been consistent .
But if you look back on it , you can say school choice , I mentioned , I mean , it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this going .
… It ’ s [ a ] basic civil right now for families .
Urban revitalization .
What did Obama do and the Democrats for urban revitalization in the last eight years , 10 years , 12 years , whatever ?
Nothing .
We have opportunity zones , $ 75 billion , I think , is expended so far just on that program alone .
… He worked very closely with Sen. [ Tim ] Scott .
Prison reform , that ’ s big .
I mean , if you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s got three beautiful little black kids on it .
And they represent those families who lost their fathers , who were arrested under the draconian prison bill and drug bill of 1994 .
… Under Trump and that program , the prison reform , a lot of those people who were convicted of nonviolent drug offenses are out , they ’ re getting out .
And 93 % of those , according to the Bureau of Prisons , that have been released under that have been black men ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was another biggie .
It was going , that didn ’ t help black people at all .
Under the Obama policies , you had basically open immigration , catch and release , open borders .
The president ’ s cracking down on that , that ’ s good .
And as you know , who gets hurt by illegal immigration ?
Low-skilled workers , and no-skilled workers .
So those three things are very , very important , in addition to the jobs .
I ’ ll get into abortion in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ basic things that have really helped the community that Trump has done , that they are seeing it .
Allen : You mentioned abortion .
And we know , looking at the statistics , that the group of people that have suffered the most under Roe v. Wade are African American babies .
McKee : Approximately , the black pro-life movement estimates 15 to 20 million have been killed .
I make this point in the book on the chapter on abortion .
Dr. Alveda King , who ’ s endorsed the book @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and great person , she quotes the statistic that one-third of all abortions , one-third are black .
And blacks , we ’ re only 12 % of the population in the country .
And we ’ re one-third of the abortions .
She has called it genocide .
It ’ s horrible .
And the right to life is very important .
And Donald Trump is probably one of the most pro-life presidents we ’ ve ever had in the White House ever .
I mean , he got up at his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about it , even though [ House Speaker ] Nancy Pelosi tears up the address , she ’ s also tearing up his ideas when she did that .
He spoke out against very strongly [ what ] the governor of Virginia stated about , “ Well , if there ’ s a botched abortion , that baby ’ s alive , we ’ ll let it be , make it comfortable.
” Are you kidding me ?
And then in New York state , when those legislators applauded after the passed draconian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the point of birth .
It was disgusting .
[ The ] president has spoken out against that very vividly .
First president to attend the , I ’ m thinking right to life rally , wasn ’ t it ?
So he ’ s been very strong on that issue and it ’ s very , very important .
And black people are very sensitive to that , notwithstanding the civil rights movement , it ’ s also in the pocket of the abortion movement , Planned Parenthood .
Allen : Speaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conservative policies serve the African American community better than policies from the far left do ?
McKee : Well , take a look at the policies .
Is it better to have 12 million blacks on food stamps or is it better to have 2 million less than you had during the Democratic years , eight years of Obama ?
Is it better for blacks to get welfare and not have a job ?
The left says , “ Let me help you .
I ’ m from the government , I want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you this .
Let us give you that .
Then we are your masters if you do that.
” But blacks , being independent as we were … If you go before the 1960s , when blacks owned a lot of their own businesses and didn ’ t count on the government , … the black families were stronger then than they were now .
You had situations where [ there were ] very few single-parent households , the divorce rate was down , the illegitimacy rate was low .
And things changed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ game .
The man in the house rule , you ’ re probably too young to remember that , where you can ’ t get your welfare check if there ’ s a man in the house , things of that sort .
Government dependency , … the left likes that .
Just look at what they ’ re proposing now coming up .
On the right side , on the conservative side , it ’ s , “ You are an individual .
You are not a member of a group.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ individual merit and individual talent , just to make sure everybody has an equal chance to start the race .
You had a great story a couple of weeks ago , we had an article on women in athletics and Title IX , and whether they ’ re getting discriminated against because of the transgender movement , etc .
But the whole thing was over , you have equal starting gate .
Everyone starts out with nothing , no hands tied behind them , equality and equal opportunity , not equal results .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ m scaring you sometimes , scaring us , “ Equal results .
It ’ s going to be based on your identity and not your merit.
” That ’ s a very dangerous thing in politics and government , and that ’ s where we ’ re headed with the far left .
And not so much the far left , it ’ s just a Democratic Party and the way our country ’ s going .
It ’ s a shame .
Allen : What would you say to those on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but there aren ’ t equal opportunities.
” That if you ’ re born into maybe a low-income area as an African American individual , your opportunities put you far , far behind maybe a Caucasian individual that ’ s born in suburbia America ?
McKee : Well , what about a white boy who is born in Appalachia who is very , very poor ?
What are his chances compared to a black born in … Look at the Obama kids , versus a white boy or girl in Appalachia .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be … this has been the story of history .
Blacks who grew up—some of the greatest , Frederick Douglass by God , a slave .
If you let people say , “ Well , because you ’ re black , you ’ re not going to get anywhere ; because you ’ re born here , you ’ re not going to get anywhere.
” What does that tell a 12-year-old kid , or a 7-year-old kid , with that critical race theory ?
I think that ’ s what they call @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is basically racism in reverse , “ Well , you can ’ t make it if you ’ re black in this country because it ’ s all racist.
” You don ’ t tell people that .
You can do anything you want to .
That ’ s why I believe , under the days of segregated schools , how some of these black kids excelled , some of the greatest , highest grade marks coming out of the schools in D.C. then compared to now .
So I would tell them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hear it .
You go tell somebody else that .
Tell your own kids they can ’ t make it , but don ’ t be coming telling black people , “ You can ’ t make it because you ’ re born poor.
” It ’ s like the little liberal elite white kids were spitting in [ the ] faces of policemen at these rallies and these demonstrations , who never had to worry about a thing in their life , and spitting in the face of a black cop who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard way , which is totally disgusting .
That ’ s Antifa .
Allen : Yeah , it is .
It is disgusting , I agree .
There are few things that get me as riled up as that does .
So , really , what you ’ re saying is it ’ s shifting the narrative from , “ You are a victim , ” to , “ No , you can overcome even the hardest of challenges ” ?
McKee : Black people are not victims .
My gosh .
Here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if we were such victims and we were such a racist country—and there ’ s racial problems , we know that—how do you beget a country that elects a black man president of the United States for two terms ?
Is that a racist country ?
South Africa , now , if you were in old South Africa , probably many ways , same today , if you were in apartheid South Africa , you could say , “ Oh , gosh , you don ’ t have a chance because they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far , schools or anything else.
” But that ’ s not the case in the United States .
We had apartheid here under segregation , but those days are over .
And even then black kids were doing well in school because you had to .
Now education is not the No .
1 it seems , unfortunately , but it should be .
Jefferson was right .
Our Constitution is correct .
Those are the ideals .
Frederick Douglass said those are the ideals .
… Remember the time he criticized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ You know , I like the goals of our Constitution , they ’ re great .
We have to live up to the words.
” … It ’ s the greatest document in the world .
And it ’ s 1776 , not 1619 .
It ’ s the goals of this country .
That ’ s why people are trying to get in .
I don ’ t see many of these Antifa people trying to leave the country .
Do you ?
Allen : It ’ s a good point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , they aren ’ t running to Haiti .
And they ’ re not running to Ghana , which , Ghana is a good country .
They ’ re not running to the Congo .
They ’ re all just staying here , they ’ re not trying to rush out .
If it ’ s so bad , leave , if you ask me .
Allen : Clarence , thank you .
The book , “ How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It , ” is available on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to put a link in the show notes today , so you all can order your own copy .
McKee : That ’ s great , thank you .
Allen : Of course .
But before we let you go , tell us a little bit about how we can follow your work at Newsmax and your work in general .
McKee : Yes , newsmax.com/mckee .
… And you ’ ll see all of my articles and columns .
I get a lot off my chest writing , Virginia .
That ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s … one reason I did the book .
Also , you can see it on clarencemckee.com , … where you get a lot of the background .
But that ’ s where they can follow me .
[ Also , ] I ’ m new to Twitter , I ’ m learning your social media .
It ’ s @ Clarence_McKee , … that ’ s the Twitter .
Allen : OK , perfect .
McKee : Thank you .
Allen : Thank you , Clarence .
We just really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and we appreciate you laying out this issue for us and really breaking it down today very much .
Very , very helpful .
So , thank you .
McKee : No , thank you and The Heritage Foundation .

Clarence McKee has worked in public policy and media for decades, including service with the Reagan administration. McKee, author of the book “How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It: The Dirty Little Secret That the Media Won’t Tell You,” says he closely observed actions taken by President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump to help the black community.
The results speak for themselves, he says. McKee joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to break down the ways in which he says Trump’s policies serve the best interests of African Americans.
Also on today’s show, we read your letters to the editor and we share a good news story about a 10-year-old boy who started an initiative to spread more kindness in our world. Now he is on a mission to provide 100,000 people with a free meal this fall.
Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript.
“The Daily Signal Podcast” is available on Ricochet, Apple Podcasts, Pippa, Google Play, and Stitcher. All of our podcasts may be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You also may leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at letters@dailysignal.com. Enjoy the show!
Virginia Allen: I am joined by Clarence McKee, president and founder of McKee Communications Inc. and author of the book “How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It.” Clarence, welcome to the show.
Clarence McKee: My pleasure, Virginia. Thank you for inviting me, it’s a real honor.
Allen: Well, it’s great to have you here and discuss your book, which I was looking at the endorsements of the book and they are quite impressive.
Alveda King has endorsed the book, as well as Lt. Col. Allen West; the former lieutenant governor of Florida, Jennifer Carroll; the chairman of BlakPac, George Farrell. Really impressive to see all the individuals that have spoken so highly of this book. And it really came from many of the blogs that you’ve written at Newsmax on the silent minority.
So if you could just talk a little bit about what prompted you to begin writing about both President [Donald] Trump and President [Barack] Obama and what they have and haven’t done for the black community.
McKee: Well, it started—thank you for the mention of it in my Newsmax blog—as I went back over those, and as I was writing them as well in real time, they’re all real time, about situations going on at that time regarding Obama on various issues, immigration, the economy, race, baiting, school choice, things of that sort.
Clarence McKee, author of the book “How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It: The Dirty Little Secret That the Media Won’t Tell You.” (Photo: Clarence McKee)
And I looked back and I said, “What did the president—the first black president of United States, who everybody was very, in the black community, pleased and honored … “
We had a black president, I disagreed with his philosophy, but I was glad, it was an honor to have a black president because it says a lot about the United States.
But then I said, “Well, what’d he do? And what did that mean?” I compared it then to some issues of importance to the black community. And I said, “Well, he didn’t do much.”
And then came across a Gallup study in 2016 saying that 52% of the black population, of those surveyed, didn’t think he had done enough. So that’s why I said, “I better write this down and get a lot of things off of my chest.”
And I looked at what Trump was doing. I said, “Wow, he’s doing a lot more when he’s [not] getting any credit for it at all.” Because Obama’s held up on his pedestal by the black civil rights leadership, and the press knows that dirty little secret, the media won’t tell anybody that. What did he do for blacks? Not much.
Allen: We are talking with Clarence McKee author of the book “How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It.”
So, Clarence, you’ve worked in the field of public policy for a very long time. You served in the Reagan-Bush administration. You’ve also worked in the news industry for many, many years. So you’ve really followed many, many presidential administrations very closely.
So when President Obama was elected, what were your expectations for his presidency?
McKee: Well, I thought, first of all, being from the city of Chicago, that he would immediately have his Department of Justice start looking into the mass, I call it mass murders going on in that city.
I think, gosh, since 2000, there’ve been more people killed there than in Afghanistan. I thought that would be an issue. I thought that schools would be an issue.
And then it turns out that he never addressed that, he went right to helping groups of people. Blacks were his main constituency, however, he supported the gay rights movement, which is fine.
He helped on same-sex marriage in terms of he came on supporting that. He helped big time on the abortion front, Planned Parenthood, and he wrote in the same big pocket.
Those groups got attention. Illegal aliens, he helped them too. But blacks didn’t get any attention. It was kind of [like he] took us for granted, and only came up to help black people and get into race when it was beneficial to him.
Allen: So when you look back on Obama’s eight years in office, what are some of those things that, as you went back and kind of reviewed those years and said, “Wait a second, what did President Obama do for the black community?”, what were some of those things that maybe stood out to you or surprised you?
McKee: It’s more the surprise. It’s more of what he did not do, as more of the positions he took. And that’s why there was such a striking comparison between him and what I was seeing in the beginnings of the Trump administration.
Just take one, just take school choice. I mean, it’s a great program, it helps a lot of kids trapped in inner-city schools.
The first thing Obama did when he got into Washington, after he put his kids in a private school, is he zeroed out of the budget money for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, which was a program started by George W. Bush to help poor kids go to private schools. Well, he got rid of it. Why? Because of the teachers unions.
It was put back, thanks to the Republican Congress, but he was against that, which to me, as I said in one article, was throwing blacks under the bus. That was the first thing.
And there [are] several others I’m going to get into it. But school choice was the big one. It means more to a lot of blacks in this country than a lot of other issues; meant a lot in Florida.
Allen: Yeah, school choice is an issue that here at The Heritage Foundation we are so passionate about, and is such a critical topic. I do want to ask you that same question, though, of expectations for President Trump. What were you expecting to see from him when he took office four years ago?
McKee: Trump had a vision and he said, “I want to help the black community.” Plus, his economic policies on jobs and turning things around. It was the height of the Obama administration, you had 12 million black people on food stamps. And so Trump was wanting to turn the country around and get America moving again. That’s what I was expecting. And that’s exactly what we got.
Allen: Let’s get in a little bit more to that economic policy and how specifically his economic policies have been so beneficial to the African American community.
McKee: You know the old expression, Virginia, “A rising tide lifts all boats?”
Allen: Yes.
McKee: That’s been the chapter in the book on this, that the rising economic tide pre-pandemic lifted a lot of black boats with the rest of the country. You got 5.4% black unemployment back in August [2019]. And if you take the last three quarters of last year, up through February, it was about 5.6%. That’s phenomenal.
Economically, lower-wage, low-income people, lower-skilled persons, they got wage increases greater than their supervisors in terms of percentages—1.6 million blacks getting off of food stamps, all of those things were important.
And you said, what else in the economy? … Let me put it down to a community level, cutting back regulations. If you have a barbershop and you’re a self-employed person, regulations can kill you. Same thing at a national level.
When the president cut regulations in energy and all these other companies, it freed up opportunities for companies to give jobs and get jobs. That way things got so good for everybody.
The tax cuts. I think the Council of Economic Advisers said $2 or $3 trillion came back into this country and companies could hire people. That was very, very important. The economy was the basis for the whole recovery and it looks like it’s going back to that now after the pandemic.
Allen: Yeah, it’s been encouraging to see some of that movement already, like you say, going in the right direction. As you look back on these past four years, what maybe is to you the most significant impact Trump has had on the black community?
McKee: Caring and actually moving on his promises. You know, if you take a look at eight years of Obama, the only thing that they did, the Democrats, they bring up racism every single time as the election, because they haven’t offered the black community anything else. So they fall back on this racism thing. And it’s been consistent.
But if you look back on it, you can say school choice, I mentioned, I mean, it’s phenomenal that he’s got this going. … It’s [a] basic civil right now for families.
Urban revitalization. What did Obama do and the Democrats for urban revitalization in the last eight years, 10 years, 12 years, whatever? Nothing. We have opportunity zones, $75 billion, I think, is expended so far just on that program alone. … He worked very closely with Sen. [Tim] Scott.
Prison reform, that’s big. I mean, if you look at the cover of my book, it’s got three beautiful little black kids on it. And they represent those families who lost their fathers, who were arrested under the draconian prison bill and drug bill of 1994. … Under Trump and that program, the prison reform, a lot of those people who were convicted of nonviolent drug offenses are out, they’re getting out.
And 93% of those, according to the Bureau of Prisons, that have been released under that have been black men; very, very important.
Illegal immigration was another biggie. It was going, that didn’t help black people at all. Under the Obama policies, you had basically open immigration, catch and release, open borders. The president’s cracking down on that, that’s good.
And as you know, who gets hurt by illegal immigration? Low-skilled workers, and no-skilled workers. So those three things are very, very important, in addition to the jobs.
I’ll get into abortion in a second, but those are … the basic things that have really helped the community that Trump has done, that they are seeing it.
Allen: You mentioned abortion. And we know, looking at the statistics, that the group of people that have suffered the most under Roe v. Wade are African American babies.
McKee: Approximately, the black pro-life movement estimates 15 to 20 million have been killed. I make this point in the book on the chapter on abortion.
Dr. Alveda King, who’s endorsed the book, she’s a great friend and great person, she quotes the statistic that one-third of all abortions, one-third are black. And blacks, we’re only 12% of the population in the country. And we’re one-third of the abortions. She has called it genocide. It’s horrible. And the right to life is very important.
And Donald Trump is probably one of the most pro-life presidents we’ve ever had in the White House ever. I mean, he got up at his State of the Union address and talks about it, even though [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi tears up the address, she’s also tearing up his ideas when she did that.
He spoke out against very strongly [what] the governor of Virginia stated about, “Well, if there’s a botched abortion, that baby’s alive, we’ll let it be, make it comfortable.” Are you kidding me?
And then in New York state, when those legislators applauded after the passed draconian pro-abortion bill, almost right up to the point of birth. It was disgusting. [The] president has spoken out against that very vividly.
First president to attend the, I’m thinking right to life rally, wasn’t it? So he’s been very strong on that issue and it’s very, very important. And black people are very sensitive to that, notwithstanding the civil rights movement, it’s also in the pocket of the abortion movement, Planned Parenthood.
Allen: Speaking broadly, why do you argue that conservative policies serve the African American community better than policies from the far left do?
McKee: Well, take a look at the policies. Is it better to have 12 million blacks on food stamps or is it better to have 2 million less than you had during the Democratic years, eight years of Obama?
Is it better for blacks to get welfare and not have a job? The left says, “Let me help you. I’m from the government, I want to help you. Let us give you this. Let us give you that. Then we are your masters if you do that.”
But blacks, being independent as we were … If you go before the 1960s, when blacks owned a lot of their own businesses and didn’t count on the government, … the black families were stronger then than they were now.
You had situations where [there were] very few single-parent households, the divorce rate was down, the illegitimacy rate was low. And things changed after the federal government got into the game.
The man in the house rule, you’re probably too young to remember that, where you can’t get your welfare check if there’s a man in the house, things of that sort. Government dependency, … the left likes that. Just look at what they’re proposing now coming up.
On the right side, on the conservative side, it’s, “You are an individual. You are not a member of a group.” It’s based [on] individual merit and individual talent, just to make sure everybody has an equal chance to start the race.
You had a great story a couple of weeks ago, we had an article on women in athletics and Title IX, and whether they’re getting discriminated against because of the transgender movement, etc. But the whole thing was over, you have equal starting gate. Everyone starts out with nothing, no hands tied behind them, equality and equal opportunity, not equal results.
The left says, and I’m scaring you sometimes, scaring us, “Equal results. It’s going to be based on your identity and not your merit.” That’s a very dangerous thing in politics and government, and that’s where we’re headed with the far left. And not so much the far left, it’s just a Democratic Party and the way our country’s going. It’s a shame.
Allen: What would you say to those on the left who argue, “Well, but there aren’t equal opportunities.” That if you’re born into maybe a low-income area as an African American individual, your opportunities put you far, far behind maybe a Caucasian individual that’s born in suburbia America?
McKee: Well, what about a white boy who is born in Appalachia who is very, very poor? What are his chances compared to a black born in … Look at the Obama kids, versus a white boy or girl in Appalachia. So of course there’s going to be … this has been the story of history. Blacks who grew up—some of the greatest, Frederick Douglass by God, a slave.
If you let people say, “Well, because you’re black, you’re not going to get anywhere; because you’re born here, you’re not going to get anywhere.” What does that tell a 12-year-old kid, or a 7-year-old kid, with that critical race theory? I think that’s what they call it.
The 1619 Project, which is basically racism in reverse, “Well, you can’t make it if you’re black in this country because it’s all racist.”
You don’t tell people that. You can do anything you want to. That’s why I believe, under the days of segregated schools, how some of these black kids excelled, some of the greatest, highest grade marks coming out of the schools in D.C. then compared to now.
So I would tell them, I don’t want to hear it. You go tell somebody else that. Tell your own kids they can’t make it, but don’t be coming telling black people, “You can’t make it because you’re born poor.”
It’s like the little liberal elite white kids were spitting in [the] faces of policemen at these rallies and these demonstrations, who never had to worry about a thing in their life, and spitting in the face of a black cop who had to work his way up the hard way, which is totally disgusting. That’s Antifa.
Allen: Yeah, it is. It is disgusting, I agree. There are few things that get me as riled up as that does. So, really, what you’re saying is it’s shifting the narrative from, “You are a victim,” to, “No, you can overcome even the hardest of challenges”?
McKee: Black people are not victims. My gosh. Here’s the bottom line here, if we were such victims and we were such a racist country—and there’s racial problems, we know that—how do you beget a country that elects a black man president of the United States for two terms? Is that a racist country?
South Africa, now, if you were in old South Africa, probably many ways, same today, if you were in apartheid South Africa, you could say, “Oh, gosh, you don’t have a chance because they’re not going to let you go far, schools or anything else.”
But that’s not the case in the United States. We had apartheid here under segregation, but those days are over. And even then black kids were doing well in school because you had to. Now education is not the No. 1 it seems, unfortunately, but it should be.
Jefferson was right. Our Constitution is correct. Those are the ideals. Frederick Douglass said those are the ideals. … Remember the time he criticized the Lincoln statute, he said, “You know, I like the goals of our Constitution, they’re great. We have to live up to the words.” … It’s the greatest document in the world. And it’s 1776, not 1619.
It’s the goals of this country. That’s why people are trying to get in. I don’t see many of these Antifa people trying to leave the country. Do you?
Allen: It’s a good point.
McKee: Or Black Lives Matter, they aren’t running to Haiti. And they’re not running to Ghana, which, Ghana is a good country. They’re not running to the Congo. They’re all just staying here, they’re not trying to rush out. If it’s so bad, leave, if you ask me.
Allen: Clarence, thank you. The book, “How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It,” is available on Amazon, so we will be sure to put a link in the show notes today, so you all can order your own copy.
McKee: That’s great, thank you.
Allen: Of course. But before we let you go, tell us a little bit about how we can follow your work at Newsmax and your work in general.
McKee: Yes, newsmax.com/mckee. … And you’ll see all of my articles and columns. I get a lot off my chest writing, Virginia. That’s how I vent my frustrations. That’s … one reason I did the book. Also, you can see it on clarencemckee.com, … where you get a lot of the background.
But that’s where they can follow me. [Also,] I’m new to Twitter, I’m learning your social media. It’s @Clarence_McKee, … that’s the Twitter.
Allen: OK, perfect.
McKee: Thank you.
Allen: Thank you, Clarence. We just really appreciate you coming on the show, and we appreciate you laying out this issue for us and really breaking it down today very much. Very, very helpful. So, thank you.
McKee: No, thank you and The Heritage Foundation.


dailysignal--2020-11-05--Why More Hispanics Voted for Trump in 2020

President Donald Trump did historically well in terms of the Hispanic vote .
In both Texas and Florida , the Republican nominee did well among Hispanics .
Per NBC News , “ 55 percent of Florida ’ s Cuban-American vote went to Trump , according to NBC News exit polls , while 30 percent of Puerto Ricans and 48 percent of ‘ other Latinos ’ backed Trump.
” Nationally , he went from 28 % among Hispanics to 32 % .
What happened here ?
Did particular issues at stake in the 2020 election affect the Hispanic community ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigration policies ?
And lastly , is there even a Hispanic voting bloc—or should we look at these voters in a different way ?
Mike Gonzalez , a senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation , joins “ The Daily Signal Podcast ” to discuss all this and more .
“ The Daily Signal Podcast ” is available on Ricochet , Apple Podcasts , Pippa , Google Play , and Stitcher .
All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts .
If you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a review .
You also can leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [ email protected ] .
Rachel del Guidice : We ’ re joined today on “ The Daily Signal Podcast ” by Mike Gonzalez .
He ’ s a senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation .
Mike , it ’ s great to have you with us on “ The Daily Signal Podcast.
” Mike Gonzalez : It ’ s entirely my pleasure to be able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of The Daily Signal .
Rachel del Guidice : Well , thanks .
It ’ s great to have you back on .
Also , while votes , Mike , are still being counted and we still don ’ t know for sure who the next president will be , President [ Donald ] Trump did historically win well in terms of the Hispanic vote , per NBC .
Fifty-five percent of Florida ’ s Cuban American vote went to Trump , according to NBC News exit polls , while 30 % of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Latinos backed Trump .
What is your perspective on all this ?
Gonzalez : Well , I mean , one thing that it did do is that it showed , what you just said , the Hispanic vote does not exist .
I don ’ t know how often I need to say this , there is no Hispanic vote .
There ’ s a Cuban vote in Miami , just like there is an Irish vote in Boston .
The Irish vote in Texas is very different from the Irish vote in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is more conservative , more Republican , more GOP .
The Irish vote in Boston is traditionally Democrat .
The Cuban vote in Miami has been strongly pro-Trump .
I don ’ t believe it ’ s 55 % , I think it is much higher .
Polls going in put it at , Trump had a 38 percentage point lead on Joe Biden in the polls going into the election .
So I don ’ t think it was 55 % .
I mean , that ’ s what they gave Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % .
And if anything , it will be much , much , much higher this year .
… The number that I ’ ve seen today is 69 % .
But yes , 69 % for Trump , 30 % for Biden among Cuban Americans in South Florida .
The Puerto Rican vote in the I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando was also very important .
And it ’ s , again , a very different Puerto Rican vote from the one , for example , in New York or at Hartford @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is much more conservative .
The Puerto Rican vote in the Northeast is very , very liberal .
This vote in the I-4 corridor , Central Florida , is much more conservative .
And then … Trump outperformed with Mexican Americans in the Rio Grande Valley .
There ’ s one county , Zapata , which he actually won , which Hillary [ Clinton ] had won by 30 points .
That county is 95 % Mexican American and Trump won that county .
And he improved in all the other counties of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ let me mention , by the way , I don ’ t know if you want to get into this later , is the defeat of Proposition 16 in California .
… Chinese American parents organized this .
Their own affinity groups like Asian Americans Advancing Justice were against them .
They defeated Proposition 16 at an even higher rate than Proposition 209 in ’ 96 , which is the first one to get rid of affirmative action , racial preferences .
So all in all , this is a very good defeat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Del Guidice : Well , in Texas , per Vox , Biden won the Hispanic vote by 19 points this year , according to the exits , but that ’ s down from Hillary Clinton ’ s 27-point margin in 2016 .
What do you make of this , Mike ?
Gonzalez : Well , as I just said , there is no Hispanic vote in Texas or anywhere .
It doesn ’ t exist .
I know that the media likes to talk about it in that sense .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Rio Grande Valley , in the heartland , traditional Mexican Americans have lived in Texas .
Trump really outperformed there compared to 2016 .
And the numbers , I have them here , in Hidalgo County , he improved by 25 percentage points .
In Zapata County , he won that one out right .
In , I think , Jim Hogg County , … he improved by 39 percentage points .
So the improvement from [ 2016 to ] this year in all these counties—Zapata County , Starr County , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Hidalgo County in Southern Texas .
And this is not a Hispanic vote , right ?
This is a Mexican American vote .
This is the heartland of the Mexican , of the Tejano vote .
This is a Tejano vote in Texas .
Del Guidice : Do you think , Mike , there were any particular issues at stake in the 2020 election that had a particular impact on Mexican American communities ’ votes ?
Gonzalez : Yeah , I think they like the economy .
… The Trump economy was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that what happened with COVID-19 had nothing to do with the economic gains that have been made in the first three years .
What is clear is that there was no repudiation of Trump .
In fact , Trump did very , very well , and he brought together a very different coalition .
And I think the liberals are very surprised by what they ’ re seeing here .
And one of the reasons why liberals have been taken aback is because they continue to believe there ’ s such a thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s no Latino vote .
I understand that consultants need to feed their families and they must push this idea , there ’ s a Latino vote .
You have , as I said , very different groups .
Again , as I said before , the Irish vote in Boston is very , very different from the Scots-Irish vote in Kentucky and West Virginia .
Del Guidice : Nikole Hannah-Jones , a reporter for The New York Times Magazine and a leader of the 1619 Project , tweeted on Tuesday , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ m going to write a piece about how Latino is a contrived ethnic category that artificially lumps white Cubans with black Puerto Ricans and Indigenous Guatemalans and helps explain why Latinos support Trump at the second highest rate.
” Mike , you ’ ve written about this .
Can you tell us your perspective ?
Gonzalez : I ’ ve tweeted back at her and I mentioned her in an op-ed that I ’ m publishing tomorrow .
She ’ s completely right .
I mean , I don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nikole Hannah-Jones is 100 % right.
” She is 100 % right .
She gets it wrong in a subsequent tweet when she said last night that these are categories created by whites .
No .
These are categories created by leftist activists and ideologs , but nothing to do with their color .
On that tweet , she was 100 % right .
Del Guidice : What is your response , Mike , to the narrative we ’ ve heard for so many years that President Trump is racist with him doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hispanic vote ?
Gonzalez : So again , there is no Hispanic vote .
He did not do well in the Hispanic vote , he did well with Cubans .
Cuban Americans in Florida .
He did relatively well with Puerto Rican voters in Central Florida .
He did well with Mexican American voters .
He did vastly better with Mexican American voters in the Rio Grande Valley .
The New York Times actually ran a very good piece , a very good essay , about a month ago in which , … @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that 75 % of quote-unquote “ Hispanics ” do not think of themselves as people of color , which threw The New York Times for a loop .
And the people who wrote this op-ed , only the most leftist 25 % consider themselves as people of color .
And they don ’ t see themselves as victims or minorities .
And they actually agreed with a lot of the messages that President Trump was giving that to The New York Times sounded like a racist dog whistle , quote-unquote “ messaging.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surveyed in this New York Times op-ed agreed with that .
So it ’ s almost like this a parallel world being lived where you have a lot of super woke , very white elite people who think they understand their country , who think they understand the countrymen , but do not really understand .
Not just that they do not understand mainstream people , nonminority people , if you want to put it that way , they don ’ t understand minority people either .
They live in a Twitter world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They do not understand their country or their countrymen .
Del Guidice : Well , President Trump ’ s rhetoric and policies on immigration have been harshly criticized by the media and D.C. pundits .
Do you think that his share of the Mexican American vote shows that there ’ s diversity of thought on immigration policies and others ?
Gonzalez : Absolutely .
I mean , the quote-unquote “ Mexican American ” voters of New Mexico have been there since the 1600s .
A lot of them are not immigrants , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigrants .
… Immigration never comes up as a top issue of Americans with their roots in Latin America .
What do they care about ?
They care about jobs .
They care about education .
They care about health care .
They care about the same things their countrymen care about .
Del Guidice : Why do you think , as a whole , President Trump was so successful with Mexican Americans ?
And are there lessons for conservatives here ?
Gonzalez : Just be yourself .
Don ’ t buy into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ votes or we need to cater to minorities .
But no , treat people like Americans .
Treat people like adults .
… Just treat people , not like members of a victim group , of an agreed group , but treat people like American voters and pay attention to what they say back to you , and not have assumptions as to what they think about or how they think just because they ’ re members of a category that was created by the bureaucracy in the first place .
If politicians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ll be rewarded .
Del Guidice : And finally , Mike , you did hit on this a little bit , but do you think the media understands the Mexican American vote ?
Why or why not ?
And how would you change media coverage of this demographic ?
Gonzalez : The media has to do everything different .
I mean , obviously , this election was a repudiation .
It was a repudiation of the media .
The media was repudiated here .
They felt that it was their job to remove @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump repudiated .
That didn ’ t happen .
So to tell the media how to better cover Mexican Americans in Texas , it ’ s a minuscule part of all the things that the media needs to do differently .
But they ’ re not going to learn because they think they ’ re right .
They live in Brooklyn or Manhattan , or they live in Washington , and all they know is people like themselves .
Washington , D.C. , voted 93 % for Biden , 5 % for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , D.C. , well over 9 % of the people you meet are liberals just like you .
And that ’ s where a lot of the media is based .
So the media is so far removed from real America that I wouldn ’ t begin with how to cover Mexican Americans .
I would just tell them , for Pete ’ s sake , stop using the term Hispanic or Latino and , of course , Latinx .
NPR … uses it all the time .
Nobody .
Nobody in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stop in Miami has ever used the term Latinx .
It ’ s only the super liberal people at NPR that use Latinx , and they ’ re not Hispanics .
Del Guidice : Well , Mike , thank you so much for joining us on “ The Daily Signal Podcast ” and unpacking the Mexican American vote with us .
We appreciate having you .
Gonzalez : Great .
Thank you very much .
It ’ d been my pleasure .
… Thank you .

President Donald Trump did historically well in terms of the Hispanic vote. In both Texas and Florida, the Republican nominee did well among Hispanics.
Per NBC News, “55 percent of Florida’s Cuban-American vote went to Trump, according to NBC News exit polls, while 30 percent of Puerto Ricans and 48 percent of ‘other Latinos’ backed Trump.” Nationally, he went from 28% among Hispanics to 32%.
What happened here? Did particular issues at stake in the 2020 election affect the Hispanic community’s votes? What about Trump’s immigration policies? And lastly, is there even a Hispanic voting bloc—or should we look at these voters in a different way?
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss all this and more.
“The Daily Signal Podcast” is available on Ricochet, Apple Podcasts, Pippa, Google Play, and Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You also can leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at letters@dailysignal.com.
Rachel del Guidice: We’re joined today on “The Daily Signal Podcast” by Mike Gonzalez. He’s a senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation. Mike, it’s great to have you with us on “The Daily Signal Podcast.”
Mike Gonzalez: It’s entirely my pleasure to be able to speak to you and to your audience of The Daily Signal.
Rachel del Guidice: Well, thanks. It’s great to have you back on. Also, while votes, Mike, are still being counted and we still don’t know for sure who the next president will be, President [Donald] Trump did historically win well in terms of the Hispanic vote, per NBC.
Fifty-five percent of Florida’s Cuban American vote went to Trump, according to NBC News exit polls, while 30% of Puerto Ricans and 48% of other Latinos backed Trump. What is your perspective on all this?
Gonzalez: Well, I mean, one thing that it did do is that it showed, what you just said, the Hispanic vote does not exist. I don’t know how often I need to say this, there is no Hispanic vote. There’s a Cuban vote in Miami, just like there is an Irish vote in Boston.
The Irish vote in Texas is very different from the Irish vote in Boston. The Irish vote in Texas is more conservative, more Republican, more GOP. The Irish vote in Boston is traditionally Democrat.
The Cuban vote in Miami has been strongly pro-Trump. I don’t believe it’s 55%, I think it is much higher.
Polls going in put it at, Trump had a 38 percentage point lead on Joe Biden in the polls going into the election. So I don’t think it was 55%. I mean, that’s what they gave Trump in 2016. They gave him 56%. And if anything, it will be much, much, much higher this year.
… The number that I’ve seen today is 69%. But yes, 69% for Trump, 30% for Biden among Cuban Americans in South Florida.
The Puerto Rican vote in the I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando was also very important. And it’s, again, a very different Puerto Rican vote from the one, for example, in New York or at Hartford, Connecticut, or Philadelphia. It is much more conservative.
The Puerto Rican vote in the Northeast is very, very liberal. This vote in the I-4 corridor, Central Florida, is much more conservative.
And then … Trump outperformed with Mexican Americans in the Rio Grande Valley. There’s one county, Zapata, which he actually won, which Hillary [Clinton] had won by 30 points. That county is 95% Mexican American and Trump won that county. And he improved in all the other counties of the RGV.
… Oh, and let me mention, by the way, I don’t know if you want to get into this later, is the defeat of Proposition 16 in California. … Chinese American parents organized this. Their own affinity groups like Asian Americans Advancing Justice were against them.
They defeated Proposition 16 at an even higher rate than Proposition 209 in ’96, which is the first one to get rid of affirmative action, racial preferences. So all in all, this is a very good defeat of identity politics all over the country.
Del Guidice: Well, in Texas, per Vox, Biden won the Hispanic vote by 19 points this year, according to the exits, but that’s down from Hillary Clinton’s 27-point margin in 2016. What do you make of this, Mike?
Gonzalez: Well, as I just said, there is no Hispanic vote in Texas or anywhere. It doesn’t exist. I know that the media likes to talk about it in that sense. It’s a Mexican American vote. And in the Rio Grande Valley, in the heartland, traditional Mexican Americans have lived in Texas. Trump really outperformed there compared to 2016.
And the numbers, I have them here, in Hidalgo County, he improved by 25 percentage points. In Zapata County, he won that one out right. In, I think, Jim Hogg County, … he improved by 39 percentage points.
So the improvement from [2016 to] this year in all these counties—Zapata County, Starr County, Webb County, Zavala, Brooks County, Hidalgo County in Southern Texas. And this is not a Hispanic vote, right? This is a Mexican American vote. This is the heartland of the Mexican, of the Tejano vote. This is a Tejano vote in Texas.
Del Guidice: Do you think, Mike, there were any particular issues at stake in the 2020 election that had a particular impact on Mexican American communities’ votes?
Gonzalez: Yeah, I think they like the economy. … The Trump economy was very good. I think people understand that what happened with COVID-19 had nothing to do with the economic gains that have been made in the first three years.
What is clear is that there was no repudiation of Trump. In fact, Trump did very, very well, and he brought together a very different coalition. And I think the liberals are very surprised by what they’re seeing here.
And one of the reasons why liberals have been taken aback is because they continue to believe there’s such a thing as a Latino vote. There’s no Latino vote.
I understand that consultants need to feed their families and they must push this idea, there’s a Latino vote. You have, as I said, very different groups. Again, as I said before, the Irish vote in Boston is very, very different from the Scots-Irish vote in Kentucky and West Virginia.
Del Guidice: Nikole Hannah-Jones, a reporter for The New York Times Magazine and a leader of the 1619 Project, tweeted on Tuesday, “One day after this election is over I’m going to write a piece about how Latino is a contrived ethnic category that artificially lumps white Cubans with black Puerto Ricans and Indigenous Guatemalans and helps explain why Latinos support Trump at the second highest rate.”
Mike, you’ve written about this. Can you tell us your perspective?
Gonzalez: I’ve tweeted back at her and I mentioned her in an op-ed that I’m publishing tomorrow. She’s completely right. I mean, I don’t get to say very often, “Nikole Hannah-Jones is 100% right.” She is 100% right.
She gets it wrong in a subsequent tweet when she said last night that these are categories created by whites. No. These are categories created by leftist activists and ideologs, but nothing to do with their color.
On that tweet, she was 100% right.
Del Guidice: What is your response, Mike, to the narrative we’ve heard for so many years that President Trump is racist with him doing so well now in 2020 with the Hispanic vote?
Gonzalez: So again, there is no Hispanic vote. He did not do well in the Hispanic vote, he did well with Cubans. Cuban Americans in Florida. He did relatively well with Puerto Rican voters in Central Florida. He did well with Mexican American voters. He did vastly better with Mexican American voters in the Rio Grande Valley.
The New York Times actually ran a very good piece, a very good essay, about a month ago in which, … first of all, they found out that 75% of quote-unquote “Hispanics” do not think of themselves as people of color, which threw The New York Times for a loop.
And the people who wrote this op-ed, only the most leftist 25% consider themselves as people of color. And they don’t see themselves as victims or minorities.
And they actually agreed with a lot of the messages that President Trump was giving that to The New York Times sounded like a racist dog whistle, quote-unquote “messaging.” These Hispanic voters that [were] surveyed in this New York Times op-ed agreed with that.
So it’s almost like this a parallel world being lived where you have a lot of super woke, very white elite people who think they understand their country, who think they understand the countrymen, but do not really understand.
Not just that they do not understand mainstream people, nonminority people, if you want to put it that way, they don’t understand minority people either. They live in a Twitter world, which is relegated to the coasts. They do not understand their country or their countrymen.
Del Guidice: Well, President Trump’s rhetoric and policies on immigration have been harshly criticized by the media and D.C. pundits. Do you think that his share of the Mexican American vote shows that there’s diversity of thought on immigration policies and others?
Gonzalez: Absolutely. I mean, the quote-unquote “Mexican American” voters of New Mexico have been there since the 1600s. A lot of them are not immigrants, they’re not the grandchildren of immigrants. …
Immigration never comes up as a top issue of Americans with their roots in Latin America. What do they care about? They care about jobs. They care about education. They care about health care. They care about the same things their countrymen care about.
Del Guidice: Why do you think, as a whole, President Trump was so successful with Mexican Americans? And are there lessons for conservatives here?
Gonzalez: Just be yourself. Don’t buy into this idea of Hispanic votes or Latino votes or we need to cater to minorities. But no, treat people like Americans. Treat people like adults.
… Just treat people, not like members of a victim group, of an agreed group, but treat people like American voters and pay attention to what they say back to you, and not have assumptions as to what they think about or how they think just because they’re members of a category that was created by the bureaucracy in the first place. If politicians begin to do that, they’ll be rewarded.
Del Guidice: And finally, Mike, you did hit on this a little bit, but do you think the media understands the Mexican American vote? Why or why not? And how would you change media coverage of this demographic?
Gonzalez: The media has to do everything different.
I mean, obviously, this election was a repudiation. It was a repudiation of the media. The media was repudiated here. They felt that it was their job to remove Donald Trump. They wanted to have Donald Trump repudiated. That didn’t happen.
So to tell the media how to better cover Mexican Americans in Texas, it’s a minuscule part of all the things that the media needs to do differently. But they’re not going to learn because they think they’re right.
They live in Brooklyn or Manhattan, or they live in Washington, and all they know is people like themselves. Washington, D.C., voted 93% for Biden, 5% for Trump.
If you live in Washington, D.C., well over 9% of the people you meet are liberals just like you. And that’s where a lot of the media is based.
So the media is so far removed from real America that I wouldn’t begin with how to cover Mexican Americans. I would just tell them, for Pete’s sake, stop using the term Hispanic or Latino and, of course, Latinx.
NPR … uses it all the time. Nobody. Nobody in a bodega in New York or a coffee stop in Miami has ever used the term Latinx. It’s only the super liberal people at NPR that use Latinx, and they’re not Hispanics.
Del Guidice: Well, Mike, thank you so much for joining us on “The Daily Signal Podcast” and unpacking the Mexican American vote with us. We appreciate having you.
Gonzalez: Great. Thank you very much. It’d been my pleasure. … Thank you.