In response to Byron Donalds doubling down on his shameful suggestion that Black Americans were better off under Jim Crow, DNC Senior Spokesperson Marcus W. Robinson released the following statement: 

“Just like Trump, his VP wannabes can’t admit when they’re wrong. Instead of apologizing for rewriting the horrifying history of Jim Crow for Black families, Byron Donalds chose to double down. Let’s be clear: no one should look back on the Jim Crow era of legalized segregation and oppression of Black communities with rose-colored glasses, and certainly no one fit to step foot into the Oval Office does so. The dangerous, out-of-touch extremism Trump and his MAGA allies push every day has no place in America, and voters will make that clear in November.”

Trump VP contender Byron Donalds doubled down on his suggestions that Black families were better off under Jim Crow…

Abby Phillip, CNN: “A lot of people… are offended by the idea that you would repeat Jim Crow three times in your comments, as if to suggest that was a time period… it sounds like nostalgia. Do you regret using that timeframe as a reference?”

Byron Donalds: “…I didn’t even insinuate that.”

[…]

Phillip: “You’re suggesting that because the Black family was together, they were better off than they are now.”

Donalds: “…I never suggested that.”

… after Donalds initially made these comments at a Black voter outreach event in Pennsylvania this week.

Philadelphia Inquirer: “At another point, Donalds said he is starting to see the ‘reinvigoration of Black family,’ which he described as younger people forming nuclear family units and ‘helping to breathe the revival of a Black middle class in America.’ He went on to say that those family values had previously been eroded by Democratic policies that Black voters embraced after becoming loyal to the party due to the Civil Rights Movement.

“‘You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively,’ he said. ‘And then H.E.W., Lyndon Johnson — you go down that road, and now we are where we are,’ he added, referring to the former U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.”

REMINDER: Trump’s tax handouts for the ultra-wealthy, attempts to repeal the ACA, and moves to gut affordable housing programs disproportionately left behind and threatened Black communities.

New York Times: “White Americans Gain the Most From Trump’s Tax Cuts, a Report Finds”

“As a result, the average tax cut going to a white American household is more than double one going to a black or Latino one.

“White Americans earn about 77 percent of total income in the United States, but they are getting nearly 80 percent of the benefits of the individual and business tax cuts generated by the new law, the analysis found. African Americans received about 5 percent of the benefits, despite earning 6 percent of the nation’s income.”

KFF: The number of uninsured Black Americans increased by nearly 300,000 during the first two years of Trump’s administration, which marked the first increase in the Black uninsured rate since 2013.  

New York Times: “The Tax Break for Children, Except the Ones Who Need It Most”

“While Republicans say the increase shows concern for ordinary families, 35 percent of children fail to receive the full $2,000 because their parents earn too little, researchers at Columbia University found. A quarter get a partial sum and 10 percent get nothing. Among those excluded from the full credit are half of Latinos, 53 percent of [B]lacks and 70 percent of children with single mothers…

“By enriching the credit and including the affluent, the Trump expansion itself has brought attention to the poor children it excludes. While the 2017 law made millions of upper-income families eligible for the $2,000 credit (in part to offset the loss of other tax benefits), it gave a boost of just $75 to most full-time workers at the minimum wage.”

The Hill: “Overall, Trump’s budget would cut $8.6 billion from housing programs, a 15 percent reduction. Deeper cuts, to the tune of 43 percent, would hit public housing funds while also eliminating programs such as the National Housing Trust Fund, Home Investment Partnerships, Community Development Block Grant and Choice Neighborhoods.”

Bloomberg: “The Trump administration will introduce a new rule on Monday that may reshape the way the government enforces fair housing law, making it harder for people to bring forward discrimination complaints under the Fair Housing Act.”