Donald Trump has spent better than a week cultivating the black and Hispanic vote in America and the candidate jumped on the tragic shooting Friday in Chicago of the cousin of National Basketball Association superstar Dwyane Wade to reiterate his point that these voters have little to lose in supporting him.
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Trump – who has recently courted minority voters with “What the hell do you have to lose?” pitches and promises that they won’t get shot during his presidency – tweeted this: “Dwayne Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago”. “Just what I have been saying”.
Trump also posted an afterthought tweet of sympathy: “My condolences to Dwyane Wade and his family, on the loss of Nykea Aldridge. They are in my thoughts and prayers”, he wrote. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. And nearly 4,000 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office. “African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!” “Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough“, he tweeted Friday.
The city of Chicago is hurting. We need more help& more hands on deck. Not for me and my family but for the future of our world.
The death “breaks our hearts. This shouldn’t happen in America”, he said. “We can not, as a society, tolerate this level of violence and suffering in our own cities”.
Trump’s tweet appeared to be his latest effort to convince African-American voters to choose him over Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, highlighted by a meeting with African-American and Hispanic Republican leaders at New York’s Trump Tower last week. Clinton has since apologized.
The article also points out that numerous neighborhoods on the city’s South and West sides where the violence is concentrated struggle with gang membership and high unemployment and poverty rates. Authorities are investigating whether the encounter between the men was a robbery, possibly involving a driver from a ridesharing company, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
The backlash echoes much of the furor that Trump created in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando earlier this year, when he tweeted that he “appreciated the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism” before calling for stricter “toughness and vigilance”.
Two people were questioned in the case Friday night, Chicago police spokeswoman Michelle Tannehill said.
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His mother, Chicago-based Baptist preacher Jolinda Wade, participated in an ESPN roundtable (“An Undefeated Conversation: Athletes, Responsibility, and Violence”) that focused on gun violence in Chicago.
