Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., isn’t happy with the polling she’s been seeing heading into the 2020 general election.
And she’s not alone. Top establishment Democrats have expressed unease in recent weeks after President Donald Trump’s polling among minority communities has threatened to collapse a vital part of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s core support.
“It just hurts me so bad to see blacks talking about supporting Trump. I don’t know why they would be doing it. I don’t know why it is on their minds,” Waters said during a recent interview. “The divisiveness that this deplorable human being has caused, the confrontation, the dog-whistling to the right-wing, the white supremacists, the KKK, and they are coming alive. They are emboldened because they have a leader.”
“He’s a racist. He does not have any appreciation for black people and black women in particular,” Waters said.
“For those black young men who think somehow they can align themselves with Trump — not only are they terrible mistaken, any of them showing their face,” she said. “I will never, ever forgive them for undermining the possibility to help their own people and their own communities.”
Water’s isn’t the only Democratic establishment figure expressing concerns just one day before the 2020 general election. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., was one of Joe Biden’s saviors in the contentious Democratic primary — and he is not happy.
Clyburn has already started to blame voter suppression for Biden’s depressed support among minority voters.
“It’s a close race. It’s all about turnout at this point,” Clyburn said in a Sunday interview with Fox News. “I suspect we will find out in 48-hours how successful these suppression tactics have been. That is one concern that I have. The only way in my opinion for Joe Biden not to be successful on Tuesday is for voter suppression to be successful.”
“I will tell you what and I mean this sincerely. I’m the father of three Black women. I am the son of a Black woman. If any Black man can go in a polling place and cast a vote for a man who referred to a Black woman as a dog on national television, I’m going to have to pray for them,” he said.
“I will have to pray for them,” Clyburn concluded. “I don’t know of any man can abide that kind of disrespect and insult.”
The Trump campaign has aggressively courted the Black vote, which is traditionally a vital part of the Democratic national coalition.
Republicans know if they can win just 5 to 10 points more of the national Black vote, they’d win in a landslide.
Which is why Waters seems to be so upset.
If Trump succeeds, it’s over for Democrats.
FLASHBACK: How minority voters won it for Trump in 2016
The Horn editorial team