Jacob Blake’s father says he has not heard from Trump
The father of Jacob Blake, the man shot by police in Kenosha, Wis., last weekend, on Friday said that he and his family have not heard from President Trump.
“That’s a negative,” Blake’s father, also named Jacob Blake, said in an appearance on CNN when asked if he had heard from the president.
Jacob Blake’s father says his conversation with Biden and Harris was “so comforting.” https://t.co/IWFQWF41sl pic.twitter.com/xXHs1MPFnD
— New Day (@NewDay) August 28, 2020
Blake is in intensive care and at least temporarily partially paralyzed after being shot seven times in close range while approaching his vehicle on Sunday in Kenosha, Wis. Though officials have not announced any charges against Blake, his father says he is handcuffed to his hospital bed. His shooting has led to protests in Kenosha and across the country.
Trump did not mention Blake during his Republican National Convention speech on Thursday.
In a CNN interview earlier this week Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, said that she “missed a call” from the president. The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Hill asking if they plan to reach out to the Blake family or have already.
“If I have to tell you I want you to do something and you don’t want to do it, there’s no need for me to mention it because then it’s not coming from your heart,” Blake said, referring to Trump’s convention speech.
He said that he spoke with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), for nearly an hour. Throughout the CNN interview, Blake’s father called the candidates “President Biden” and “Vice President Harris,” which he said was intentional as the November election approaches.
“I talked to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for an hour on the phone, and when President Biden was talking to me I mentioned a story to him about when I was eight years old, he said, ‘That was you?’ And I said, ‘Yes, that was me.’ And he said, ‘Well, that makes me old.’ I said, ‘Well you said it, not me.’ ”
Blake said that it was like “speaking to my uncle and one of my sisters” and “they didn’t act like they were in a hurry to go anywhere.”
“I appreciate everything that they’ve done and everything that they’re doing because they keep my son in mind, and President Biden kept telling me his own issues with his family, that he identifies with what I’m going through,” Blake said. “I didn’t have to keep telling him, he knew. It felt like he knew. … Vice President Harris felt like they knew what was going on.”
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