Donald Trump’s top black strategist in Florida thrown out of Trump rally for being black
| August 20, 2016
Even as Donald Trump suddenly reverse course with his campaign and begins telling rooms full of white people why he’d make a great President for black people, national polls say that he’s polling within the margin of error of zero percent with African-American voters. The Trump campaign does have minority outreach efforts, but those in charge of it say the campaign is blowing them off. Worse, Trump’s own top black strategist in Florida was thrown out of a Trump rally, essentially for being black.
Sean P. Jackson is the head of the Black Republican Caucus of Florida, and he’s also serving as a Donald Trump surrogate in the state. He claims that the head of the Trump campaign in Florida, Karen Giorno, has repeatedly blown off his efforts at getting the campaign to take African-American voters seriously. In fact she apparently couldn’t even remember what he looked like, despite his prominence within the campaign and the numerous conversations they’d had.
When the Secret Service asked Jackson what he was doing backstage at a Donald Trump rally, he identified himself, but none of Trump’s people backstage could vouch for him because none of them recognized him. He claims he asked Giorno to vouch for him, but she said she didn’t recognize him either, so he was escorted out under the assumption he didn’t belong.
In other words, Donald Trump’s own top campaign people in Florida were unable to distinguish the head of the Black Republican Caucus from any other random black guy when they saw him, so by default he was thrown out for being black. In Jackson’s own words, the Republican Party “has done a piss-poor job of courting the black vote over fifty years.” Trump’s sudden token mention of black voters won’t change that. Someone may have to break it to Sean P. Jackson that he’s wasting his time working for a party that can’t even figure out what he looks like, let alone bother to care about the issues he’s advocating for.