A panel of voters from the key state of Arizona engaged in a heated back-and-forth on Friday night on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” as the group debated whether President Donald Trump is a racist or not, as many Democrats have claimed he is ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
The voters sounded off during a tense segment on a wide range of issues facing candidates Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) in their tight Senate race.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo moderated the panel of 21 voters, split almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans.
Although Trump received only eight percent of the total African-American vote in 2016, a recent Harvard-Harris poll showed that Trump’s approval among black Americans rose from 10 percent in 2017 to 29 percent in 2018.
It also showed that African-Americans’ approval of Trump’s handling of the economy rose from 17 percent to 40 percent. Even their approval of Trump’s handling of immigration rose — from 15 percent to 29 percent.
In addition, a recent Rasmussen Reports poll showed that 36 percent of African-Americans approved of Trump’s performance as president.
But it’s difficult to think these numbers possibly could be true, merely by listening to Democrats’ rhetoric and much of the mainstream media coverage ahead of the November 6 midterms.
After playing a montage of video clips of mainstream media members from CNN and MSNBC calling Trump a fear-mongering racist, Ingraham and Arroyo asked the panel if Arizona voters objected to Trump being called a racist.
Only four of the voters raised their hands when asked if they thought “those media appraisals were accurate.”
About 13 voters raised their hands when asked if they thought those labels were “unfair” to Trump.
Juttia Lunario, a Democratic Arizona voter who said she was an immigrant to the U.S., replied, “I don’t see the president as a person that is a racist. He has shown that he has had many people of different backgrounds, ethnic — everything — and I don’t think race is the issue. It is, ‘I don’t like you.’”
“It’s constantly used to make this man look bad. Use something different. Try something new,” Lunario advised her party.
When Ingraham asked how many voters believed “the charge of racism is used too casually in the United States,” about 12 raised their hands.
Clyde Bowen (pictured above left), an African-American Republican who raised his hand, explained, “I just think that what you’re seeing is the last gasp of a desperate group that needs — that needs votes, because that’s all the Democrats have.”
He also took issue with how Democrats highlight real or perceived racial or religious bigotry when it conveniently suits their needs — while ignoring the anti-Semitic bigotry of people like Louis Farrakhan, a controversial black nationalist and the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI).
“And nothing is said about the things that [Farrakhan] has said, such as Jews being ‘termites,’” Bowen said. “But I would say that they’re just using this as race-baiting and race. And if you crack a history book, you would see who very surely is the person who has got us into many of these situations concerning race with African-Americans.”
The woman continued, saying, “[Laura Ingraham] asked a specific question about whether Trump and everybody — is he racist? He is not. It is an excuse. There’s no proof. There’s no background.”
That’s when African-American Democrat Roy Tatem Jr. (above right) argued, “If you crack a history book, you’ll see that there was 287 years of slavery based on race. It wasn’t based on anything else.”
“And propagated by the Democrats,” Bowen interrupted.
Tatem shot back, “We’re not talking about political parties … We’re not talking about politics … We’re talking about based on race. I let everybody talk. Can I make my point? We’re talking about based on race.”
“African-Americans have been enslaved. African-Americans after slavery, after 1865, were subjugated to 100 years of Jim Crow lynching [and] disenfranchisement based on race. So don’t say that the only people that are playing race identity politics have no merit. There’s a huge merit,” Tatem insisted.
An unnamed woman (above center) chimed in and pointed to the Farrakhan example, saying, “There is also the Jewish community, too.”
They began talking over one another. Tatem insisted, “I’m not negating that.”
The woman continued, saying, “[Laura Ingraham] asked a specific question about whether Trump and everybody — is he racist? He is not. It is an excuse. There’s no proof. There’s no background.”
“Do you know him?” Tatem asked the woman.
She replied, “Roy, this is not personal. I’m just saying — you make a convoluted argument when you start bringing in slavery.”
“I’m not making a convoluted argument. I’m giving you background,” Tatem argued.
Watch more of the tense panel discussion and interaction below:
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