Donald Trump was reportedly heard praising low Black voter turnout in the 2016 election in leaked audio published this week.
A report from Politico noted that the audio came from a private meeting inside Trump Tower before inauguration day in January 2017. Speaking to a group of civil rights leaders, Trump appeared to brag that these voters chose to stay home rather than cast their ballots for his opponent.
“Many Blacks didn’t go out to vote for Hillary [Clinton] ’cause they liked me. That was almost as good as getting the vote, you know, and it was great,” he was quoted as saying.
The report added that the leak of the apparent brag came amid a sharpened battle over voting rights , with many of the president’s critics saying that he and the Republican Party are aiming to restrict voting access, especially among African Americans. The GOP has long been accused of attempting to create roadblocks for these voters, including identification laws that, in the past, have been struck down by courts for targeting minorities.
Politico reported that Trump held the sit-down on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2017, just days before he would move into the White House, and met with the voting group Drum Major Institute along with civil rights leaders Harry Wachtel and Martin Luther King III.
Audio of the meeting was provided by Tootsie Warhol, Wachtel’s chief of staff, who said he secretly recorded it on his iPhone. As Warhol told the outlet, Trump came into the meeting bragging about his connections to famous people of color.
“The first thing that I can never forget was how when you walked in, (Trump) name-drops all these Black celebrities and tries to give the illusion that they’re his friends,” he said, adding that the president-elect showed off a sneaker from basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal and a boxing glove used by Sugar Ray Leonard.
Later, Trump reportedly boasted that he won the support of 11 percent of African Americans. As Politico explained, he had actually won 8 percent of this demographic, lower than his claim but still higher than previous Republican nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney.
At one point, the real-estate-mogul-turned-president stepped out to take a phone call and later came back to say that he was speaking to Barack Obama. Though Trump had been highly critical throughout Obama’s presidency and has continued sharp attacks on his predecessor in the years that would follow, at the time he bragged about having a close relationship with him.
“We actually have a very good relationship. I said he did a great job last night on 60 Minutes , and, uh, we actually have a very good relationship,” Trump supposedly said.