The head of ABC News is blasting former President Trump for his comments about African American voters amid his multiple criminal indictments, The Hill has learned.
Over the weekend, ABC President Kim Godwin admonished Trump’s recent remarks speculating on “why the Black people like me,” calling the rhetoric “as racist as it gets.”
“No matter one’s politics, the fact that a person running for President of the United States made these remarks period — but also to a public crowd — and with so many black people present — and that they stand with him — is mind blowing. Shocking,” Godwin wrote in an email that was shared with a number of news outlets.
A source at the network told The Hill that Godwin’s comments were part of an internal editorial discussion about coverage of the former president.
Trump, during a speech at the Black Conservative Federation annual gala in South Carolina late last week, told the crowd, “I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing,” in reference to the dozens of criminal counts he faces.
“And a lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” the former president continued. “It’s been pretty amazing, but possibly, maybe, there’s something there.”
Trump’s comments were widely condemned by Black leaders, the Democratic Party and the White House in the days that followed.
The front-runner for the GOP nomination this fall, the former president has a history of making insensitive and offensive comments about African Americans, women and immigrants.