The man President Donald Trump once used as a 'my African American' stage prop now says the GOP is pursuing a "pro-white" agenda, uses black people as "political pawns."
Gregory Cheadle does not have anything good to say about Trump, either.
"When you look at his appointments for the bench: White, white, white, white white, white, white," Cheadle says, "That to me is really damning to everybody else because no one else gets a chance because he's thinking that the whites are superior, period."
Here's the archival clip that went viral:
Cheadle became internet-famous and TV news-famous in June 2016 when then-candidate Trump pointed to him (The Lone Black Guy) at a rally in Redding, California where Cheadle lives.
Trump pointed to him and said, "Look at my African American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest?"
From PBS NewsHour, here's what the man in that clip is thinking now:
Now, the 62-year-old real estate broker, who supported the Republican approach to the economy, said he sees the party as pursuing a "pro-white" agenda and using black people like him as "political pawns." The final straw for Cheadle came when he watched many Republicans defend Trump's tweets telling four congresswomen of color, who are all American citizens, to go back to their countries, as well as defend the president's attacks on Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and his comments that Cummings' hometown of Baltimore is "infested."
"President Trump is a rich guy who is mired in white privilege to the extreme," said Cheadle, of Redding, Calif., who switched from being an independent to a Republican in 2001. "Republicans are too sheepish to call him out on anything and they are afraid of losing their positions and losing any power themselves."
President Trump faced fierce backlash after he tweeted in July that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., should leave the United States.
"Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," Trump wrote. "Then come back and show us how it is done."
Read more:
Why the man Trump once called 'my African American' is leaving the GOP
[Yamiche Alcindor, pbs.org/newshour, image: Shutterstock]
