An Iowa man with plans to back President Donald Trump in the upcoming election pulled the “but I have black friends” card while trying to prove how not racist he is.
MSNBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard interviewed the unnamed man at the Iowa State Fair over the weekend, and inquired about who he would be voting for. The man was reluctant about revealing his candidate of choice but heavily suggested he was throwing his support behind Trump.
“Guess: I’m white, old, they call me all kinds of names, who do you think I would vote for?” the voter, later identified as Bob Fisher, said. “C’mon you are smarter than that. You don’t have to fill in the blank, everybody knows. We’re the bad people.”
Iowa voter and Donald Trump supporter Bob Fisher said he doesn’t believe the president is a racist, despite his recent verbal attacks against people of color. (MSNBC / video screenshot)
When Hillyard asked about the names he’d been called, Fisher said he has been labeled a “racist.” But in an effort to prove just how tolerant he is, he told Hillyard about the time he once “shared my yard with a colored guy.”
“I have nothing against them,” he added. “I grew up in the East. I grew up with — people.”
When asked if he believed the president is racist, Fisher said he did not.
The 73-year-old Trump has come under increased scrutiny in recent months over his incendiary and racist rhetoric aimed at people of color. The former real estate mogul ignited a social media firestorm last month after tweeting that four minority congresswomen of color — Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — should “go back” to the “crime infested” countries they came from.
All four women are U.S. citizens, with Omar immigrating to the U.S. as a child.
The president continued his attacks the following week, this time taking aim at top Democrat Elijah Cummings. In a series of tweets, the president excoriated Cummings’ Baltimore district as a “rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.”
“If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous and filthy place,” he said of the 13-time elected congressman, adding: “The facts speak far louder than words … Elijah Cummings has failed badly.”
Hillayard asked Fisher if he could see why some folks think the president is racist, given his recent comments.
“Yes and no,” the man replied. “Because some of those people he’s talking about have said just as bad things about him that you can’t say on TV.
Watch more in the video below.
.@VaughnHillyard asks an Iowa voter who he'll be voting for:
"Guess: I'm white, old, they call me all kinds of names… you don't have to fill in the blank, everybody knows. We're the bad people." pic.twitter.com/SMIgp31y9A
— Way Too Early with Jonathan Lemire (@WayTooEarly) August 12, 2019
