When Donald Trump famously asked Black people what they had to lose by voting for him, he probably never imagined he could be the one on the losing end of that hollow proposition. While he did manage to win the election, his support has been waning among one of his most loyal blocs of supporters–Black Republicans.
Wayne Bradley is a recent and glaring example of this phenomenon. The prominent member of the Michigan Republican Party seemingly reached his breaking point when Trump pardoned Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday. Arpaio had been charged for defying court orders banning racial profiling in his department.
The pardon prompted Bradley to sound off on Facebook, but his frustration with conservatives and Republicans wasn’t only limited to the sheriff. While Bradley didn’t name Trump directly, the target of his words was clear.
So now supporting Sheriff Joe, confederate monuments, condemning Colin Kaepernick for his freedom of speech, all while supporting the “free speech” of the Tiki Torch crew are hallmarks of conservatism? GTFOH…..Not The Kid…Y’all ain’t conservative at all.
That and other, similar social media posts from Bradley prompted some of his fellow card-carrying Republicans to call him out for not being on board with Party politics. Randy Bishop, Chairman of the Antrim County Republican Party, located in a separate part off the state, didn’t mince his words to Bradley in his own Facebook post, The Detroit Newsreported.
“No,…actually you work for and get paid by the Michigan Republican Party,” wrote Bishop, who is White. “…and President Donald J. Trump is the CEO of the ENTIRE Republican Party,…no big tent for his employees!!! Get behind our President, or resign,…now!!!”
Given everything that transpired, Bradley very well may be contemplating Bishop’s unsolicited advice.
Here are five more Black Republicans who could also be on the verge of defecting from their political party.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina
For Scott, one of just two Black U.S. Senators, Trump’s responses to the White racist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which left one person dead and multiple others injured from hateful violence, was “indefensible,” he told Vice News. “What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority. And that moral authority is compromised … There’s no question about that.”
Texas State Rep. Will Hurd
Like Scott, Hurd appeared to be fed up after Trump’s comments on Charlottesville, which included labeling some of the White nationalists as “very fine people.” Those comments may have given some people the impression that Trump supported the racist platform of the rally, Hurd told CNN earlier this month.
“Nobody should doubt whether the leader of the free world is against racism, bigotry, neo-Nazis and anti-Semitism,” Hurd added.
The Fox News political analyst was reduced to tears on live TV in response to Trump’s words after Charlottesville.
“Mr. President, good people don’t pal around with Nazis and white supremacists,” Caldwell said. “Maybe they don’t consider themselves white supremacists and Nazis, certainly they hold those views. This has become very troubling for anyone to come on any network and defend what President Trump did and said at that press conference yesterday is completely lost and the potential to be morally bankrupt.”
Gregory Cheadle
The failed Republican congressional candidate in California who became infamous overnight when then-candidate Trump called him “my African-American” now says his backing for the president is “on life support” because of the Charlottesville comments in particular, the New York Times reported.
Singleton continued to support Trump even after he was fired as a senior adviser for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in February because of previous criticism of the president. But all of that has since changed, for a number of reasons.
“It’s difficult to continue to have hope for President Trump,” Singleton told the Times. “It’s difficult to focus on complex policy issues when you have a country that is falling apart. It’s difficult to focus on health care. It’s difficult to focus on the economy. It’s difficult to focus on infrastructure when you have people who dislike other people because of their ethnicity.”
SOURCES: The Detroit News, Vice News, Roll Call, The New York Times
