White House blasts Trump’s comments on Black voters as ‘divisive and repugnant’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday blasted former President Trump’s “divisive and repugnant” comments suggesting that his multiple criminal indictments have upped his standing among Black Americans.

“Just being very candid here, it’s repugnant, and it’s divisive to traffic in racist stereotypes. That’s what we have seen. And that affect[s] all Americans, right? You’re tearing up all Americans by doing this. It is, again, divisive and repugnant, and it’s coming from, obviously, a former president of the United States,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at Tuesday’s briefing. 

“And in any context, it is profane to compare the long, painful history … of abuse and discrimination suffered by Black Americans … to something that is totally different than self-serving purposes. That’s what we saw from the former president,” Jean-Pierre added. 

Pressed on whether her comments reflected how President Biden was seeing the matter, the secretary stressed she’d spoken to him directly about Trump’s comments.

The former president, the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said last week that his legal woes, which include multiple criminal indictments, have increased his support among Black Americans. 

“I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing,” Trump said at an event for Black conservatives in South Carolina. “And a lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing, but possibly, maybe, there’s something there.”

Black leaders and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) quickly slammed the remarks.

“This might come as news to Trump, but pushing tired tropes, wannabe Jordans, and mugshot t-shirts isn’t going to win over Black voters who suffered through record high unemployment and skyrocketing uninsured rates under his leadership,” Sarafina Chitika, the DNC’s national press secretary, said in a statement.

With Jean-Pierre’s comments on Tuesday, the White House has weighed in. 

“This is not what Joe Biden wants to see. He has been always very clear that hate has no safe harbor here,” Jean-Pierre said. “And so that is what we need to hear right now. Not a divisive, repugnant statement from a former president that really tears apart a painful history that a community has gone through, the Black community.”