Despite his childish demeanor, constant misbehavior, and perpetual misconduct, Donald Trump is not a fool.
Because only a fool would spontaneously attack his critics without a plan. Trump has one and we’ve seen it before. In sports, he went after Steph Curry but stayed away from LeBron James, even when he called him a bum.
And right now while Trump is going after Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I find it quite convenient that he has yet to mention Kamala Harris.
Same play, different sport.
Trump’s Sunday morning tweets were directed at “The Squad” as he hit the quartet with the oldest racist taunt in the book, “Go back to where you came from.”
“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came,” he tweeted.
Unsurprisingly, he doubled downed on his statements on Monday.
“This is a president who has said ‘grab women by the pu**y.’ This is a president whose called black athletes ‘sons of bitches.’ This is a president who has called people who come from black and brown countries ‘s**tholes.’ This is a president who has equated neo-Nazis with those who protest against them,” Omar said on Monday.
Don’t forget that he also called Omarosa a dog.
But just like Trump knew to keep his distance from LeBron, he’s doing the same thing with Harris, especially after she destroyed Joe Biden on national television a few weeks ago during the debates when the topic turned to school busing policies.
And if you’ve been paying attention, Harris is quite aware that Trump refuses to engage with her despite the fact that she isn’t shy about discussing him, or the fact that she’s the only black woman running for president, representing a base that will be central to the 2020 election.
“When I’m in those committee hearings and if it was (William) Barr, if it was (Brett) Kavanaugh, if it was Jeff Sessions, for me it’s about being there trying to get to the truth,” Harris said to Jemele Hill on Monday’s “Jemele Hill is Unbothered” podcast when asked if she thinks Trump is afraid to debate her.
“And the truth, as it relates to Donald Trump and this administration, is that he has been a president that does not understand what it means to be Commander-in-Chief.”
That same sentiment from Harris has been prevalent in some of her most recent sit-downs with black media members.
“When you break things, you get hurt, you bleed, you get cut,” Harris recently said to Errin Haines Whack of the Associated Press. “When I made the decision to run, I fully appreciated that it will not be easy. But I know if I’m not on the stage, there’s a certain voice that will not be present on that stage. Knowing that there is a perspective, there is a life experience, there is a vision that must be heard and seen and present on that stage, and that I have an ability to do that.”
“People want to ask what was going on on that stage. I was not going to stand there and let people rewrite history,” she explained about her exchange with Biden. “We can’t write the next chapter without remembering what was in the last chapter. This is not manufactured. It’s something that’s very much a part of my identity.”
And last Friday, Harris again touched on the subject when she returned to “The Breakfast Club” and was asked if she was the person that could take on Trump in a debate.
“I do,” said Harris to Charlamagne tha God.
“Listen, there is so much about what we need to do to not only turn the page and let him see his time come to an end in the White House, but there’s also what’s at stake is about the future of our country. So, on the first piece of it, it’s going to be about having somebody on that stage in the General Election who will know how to competently prosecute the case against four more years of Donald Trump. I know how to do that. And as far as I’m concerned, he’s got a long rap sheet, with plenty of evidence.”
“I believe that the policies of this administration should be prosecuted.”
According to Fortune.com, black women will have a huge say in who wins next year’s election as the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 55% of eligible black women voters went to the polls in November, which was six percentage points above the national average. However, a recent study from FiveThirtyEight highlights while Americans say that they would vote for a woman, stereotypes that stem from racism and sexism still play a major role.
“Let’s not forget why Trump is attacking Democratic women of color in the first place: They brought attention to the inhumane conditions they saw at this administration’s detention camps.
“What will we say to those we imprisoned for seeking safety?” tweeted Hillary Clinton on Monday.
Like me, Clinton has seen this movie before when it comes to Trump’s tactics. The plot is always the same: divert the attention elsewhere by strategically going after certain people who call out your BS.
But unlike Clinton, Harris hasn’t been in Trump’s crosshairs, yet.
It’s bound to happen, especially if she keeps rising in the polls. And once it does, he’ll be toe-to-toe with a former prosecutor who could wind up being his biggest foe.
Scared doesn’t even begin to describe what Trump should be if that happens.
Because if you know like I know, then you understand just how impossible it is to get the better of an HBCU-educated black woman in any debate.
