During a time of great civil unrest, perhaps the most tense time since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, someone at Fox News thought it would be a good idea to send a black reporter to interview President Trump.
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t a good idea.
Trump: I think I’ve done more for the black community than any other President and let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln because he did good but although it’s always questionable, you know in other words the end result
Harris: Well we are free Mr. President pic.twitter.com/advWPuSKwv— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) June 12, 2020
During yet another of his diatribes on how he’s been the greatest president for black Americans in history, interviewer Harris Faulkner had to remind Trump that he really hasn’t been.
Trump was saying:
‘I think I’ve done more for the black community than any other president, and let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln, because he did good — although it’s always questionable. You know, in other words, the end result –’
Faulkner interrupted:
‘Well, we are free, Mr. President. He did pretty well.’
Trump agreed.
‘We are free.’
Of course, Faulkner wasn’t referring to the freedom of wealthy white men, but Trump doesn’t understand that. Apparently, he doesn’t understand much of anything about black history (this is the same man who thought Frederick Douglass was still alive) but forcing any black American to have to explain to a white president that freeing slaves was a good thing is just painful to watch.
It’s also unclear what Trump was referring to by “the end result.” Is he questioning the decades of segregation and lynching that black Americans experienced after slavery and blaming Lincoln for not preemptively fixing that problem? Or is he questioning Lincoln’s freeing of slaves in this country? No one will ever know for sure.
What is clear is that Trump needs a history lesson. Black history, preferably.
Twitter had a big reaction to the interview. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image screenshot via Twitter
