Aldridge’s death soon went viral, and as everyone discussed the amount of violence occurring in Chicago, Republican candidate Donald Trump tweeted about the happening, stating that the incident marked why African-Americans should vote for him in the upcoming elections.
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A Chicago woman related to professional basketball player Dwyane Wade was shot and killed on Chicago’s South Side Friday afternoon, according to WGN-TV.
This comes after Trump recently boosted his message to black voters by saying their lives “cannot get any worse, and believe me, I’m gonna fix it”.
The tweet caused major backlash on Twitter, with many deriding Trump for capitalizing on a person’s death.
Actor Don Cheadle was one of those who weighed in, tweeting that Trump was a “POS”. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON.
Critics immediately pounced on the tweet, which was sent out Saturday morning, a day after 32-year-old Nykea Aldridge was apparently accidentally struck in a gang-related shooting on Chicago’s South Side while pushing her newborn in a stroller.
“What the hell do you have to lose?” he has said frequently over the past week in a rhetorical question aimed at African-Americans.
Jolinda Wade and her son had appeared one night earlier on an ESPN Town Hall meeting to discuss the violence in Chicago.
It’s not the first time a relative of Wade, who signed with the Bulls as a free agent in the off-season, has been a victim of violence.
“My cousin was killed today in Chicago”, he wrote.
Trump did not respond to Cheadle’s Twitter storm, but by early Saturday afternoon, Trump’s original tweet was gone, and a almost identical version had been posted, this time correcting the spelling of Wade’s first name.
Trump’s use of Twitter has been much studied because it’s considered revolutionary in a political campaign, but his tweets and retweets have also gotten him into repeated controversies.
Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, criticised Trump for linking Aldridge with the African-American vote, saying the only appropriate response to Aldridge’s death was sympathy.
“We are now in a very, very sensitive grieving place”, she said while holding her sobbing sister Diana. “They are in my thoughts and prayers”, he said.
While Republicans have had trouble reaching black voters, recent polls show Trump’s support among blacks is in the single digits – lagging far behind the support of recent GOP nominees, according to CNBC.com.
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We will have to wait and see if Trump will take the advice from the groups he is trying to reach.
