Trump Campaign Leak Shows He Tried To Stop Black Americans From Voting — Report
A new report says that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign tallied and labeled voters, cataloging their political affiliations (including “Disengaged Clinton”), personality types (such as “individualist” or “leader”), and race. This includes 3.5 million Black voters listed as “deterrence” — that is, a list of voters who the campaign wanted to prevent from voting at all.
The full report is due for release by Channel 4 News Monday evening, but a teaser shared by the network shows lists of voters, categorized as “thinker,” “leader,” and other personality types, as well as by race, age, and voter type — “Disengaged Clinton,” “Core Clinton,” “Persuasion,” and “Deterrence.”
🚨🚨Tonight at 7pm:🚨🚨
EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 News investigation reveals a huge Trump campaign data leak, exposing how 3.5 million Black Americans were listed as ‘Deterrence’ – to try to stop them voting in 2016.#DeterringDemocracy pic.twitter.com/wkxKfbynu6
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) September 28, 2020
Voter suppression isn’t a new tactic. North Carolina, for instance, was found to have “target[ed] African Americans with almost surgical precision,” in 2016, when courts reviewed legislation passed ostensibly to protect voting, but that was deemed to instead limit access for many voters, as the Atlantic reported at the time.
In 2018, NPR reported on two dozen states imposing new restrictions on voting over the past several years, noting the impact of the Supreme Court decision on Shelby v Holder. Before that decision, states with a history of targeting minorities with voter suppression had to have new voting laws approved by a Federal government. Overwhelmingly, these new laws do disproportionately affect minorities.
Less than two weeks ago, the president was criticized for telling fans at a campaign rally — a nearly all-white crowd — that they have “good genes” — a line that seemed to echo Nazi Germany. However, he has perpetually claimed that he has “done more for the Black community than any other president.” Sometimes he names Abraham Lincoln as an exception.