Sen. Warnock on Obama Scolding Black Voters Over Lack of Enthusiasm for Harris: ‘He Wasn’t Talking to All Black Men’

BASH: “One more question on this topic. I want to play for you something that former President Barack Obama said a few days ago. He had some pretty sharp language for black men who are considering voting for Trump or perhaps sitting out this election. Take a listen.”

[Clip starts]
Obama: “You have someone who has consistently shown disregard not just for the communities, but for you as a person. And you’re thinking about sitting out? (...) Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president. And you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
[Clip ends]

BASH: “Senator, actor Wendell Pierce, who is a big Harris supporter, he was a delegate at the DNC, he tweeted, ‘Awful message. The party has to stop scapegoating black men. Black men aren’t the problem. This is a false flag. Black men voting for Trump isn’t significant,’ as you just said. ‘This accusatorial tone will make some black men stay home, which is worse.’ Is he right?”
WARNOCK: “Listen, I have a great deal of respect for President Obama, and he wasn’t talking to all black men. He was talking to men who were talking about sitting on the sidelines. We have got to talk to everybody, because our coalition is broad. But at the end of the day, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are doing the work that every candidate has to do. You have got to earn people’s vote. And so, that’s the work that they’re doing in a moment like this. When you present a program which eliminates the amount of student debt that we have seen happen, this closes the racial wealth gap. When you address the importance of historically black colleges and universities — we have invested some $16 billion in HBCUs. As a proud graduate of Morehouse College, and we have College Sunday later this morning, I know firsthand the work that this administration is doing. And I think that we have got to continue to deliver that message to the voters. And, in the end, I think that folks will recognize how much is really at stake in this moment and that the choice really is not between voting and not voting. Not to vote is a vote. It pushes Donald Trump that much closer to the White House, and that’s something that we cannot afford to happen.”