Former President Donald Trump stated he’s “very honored” after he purportedly acquired an early 2024 endorsement from a Black man claiming to be a prime activist in Black Lives Matter — the social justice motion that Trump frequently blasted throughout his time period as protests gripped the nation in 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd.
Naturally, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who’s debating California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday night, didn’t miss the prospect to name out Trump’s flip flopping.
Phrase of the shock endorsement emerged Nov. 28 after self-proclaimed political activist Mark Fisher, who says he co-founded a BLM group in Rhode Island, expressed his assist for Trump throughout an interview with “Fox & Pals” whereas complaining about Biden-era insurance policies.
“Personally, I really like the person,” Fisher stated of Trump throughout his transient phase on the air. “I imply, how might you not like an actual man? How might you not relate to somebody like that?”
Through the impromptu chat, Fisher stated “all people else sucks” within the race in comparison with Trump, who wasted no time embracing the shaky endorsement in a message to his platform, Fact Social, saying he spoke with Fisher and got here away from the dialog feeling that he was a “nice man.”
“Very honored to have his and BLM’s assist,” Trump wrote, earlier than claiming to have “carried out extra for Black folks than some other president” since Abraham Lincoln ended slavery in america, a declare that additionally stirred controversy and rumblings within the Black neighborhood throughout his presidency.
Later, Gary Dantzler — the chief of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island — disputed Fisher’s declare that he co-founded the social justice group, nevertheless, he did acknowledge that Fisher as soon as labored for the group for a short while earlier than he was finally let go.
“Mark Fisher acknowledged he was one of many co-founders of BLM,” Dantzler instructed the Windfall Journal, with out going into a lot element. “Completely not. He was a revered advocate for BLM. That’s it. And he was paid and someplace he received fired and demoted.”
In one other interview on the “Kim Iversen Present,” Fisher stated that Black voters have been “used and abused” by Democrats for too lengthy, accusing Democrats of failing to “worth” the Black vote — a sentiment that many voices within the Black neighborhood are starting to precise extra within the buildup to 2024.
“I really feel just like the tide is beginning to flip,” Fisher stated Tuesday. “I really feel like a variety of Black individuals are beginning to pivot off of that Democratic plantation. For therefore lengthy, we’ve been slaves to that celebration. Truly, we’ve been psychological slaves afraid to get off of that plantation.”
Fisher finds himself embroiled in controvery, with many within the official Black Lives Matter motion portray him as an impostor.
He’s listed because the founding father of BLM Inc., a separate impartial entity that presupposed to characterize the broader Black Lives Matter Motion, led by Fisher — a comparatively unknown former staffer with a couple of loose-knit connections on the nationwide stage.
The web site for BLM Inc. states the group is “not affiliated with some other Black Lives Matter Motion.”
The Black Lives Matter Basis additionally sought to discredit Fisher, calling him a political operative who was making an attempt to tug an apparent “publicity stunt.”
“The precise-wing continues to make use of and amplify fringe Black voices to create an concept of broad assist for his or her corrupt candidates,” the inspiration fumed in an announcement to Enterprise Insider, including that Fisher’s operation is “illegitimate.”
“Anybody can begin a corporation and add the phrases Black Lives Matter to it in an try and muddy the waters of our motion, as Mark Fisher did,” the inspiration emphasised within the scathing rebuke that additionally labeled Trump a “terrorist who dedicated treason and tried to subvert American democracy.”
“He’s no buddy to Black folks in search of to dwell in a simply society,” the group stated.
Trump’s sudden embrace was an astonishing reversal from his place in 2020 when he blasted New York Metropolis’s resolution to color ‘Black Lives Matter” in entrance of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, calling the favored rallying cry a “image of hate.”
DeSantis, who’s difficult Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, used the second to underscore the previous president’s hypocrisy for accepting an endorsement from the very group he assailed all through his political profession.
“BLM praising Donald Trump — and Trump celebrating it — makes good sense,” DeSantis posted on the platform X, whereas stating that he referred to as the Nationwide Guard throughout BLM-led protests all through 2020, when a number of high-profile police killings ignited the motion and led to violent protests in each nook of the nation.
BLM praising Donald Trump — and Trump celebrating it — makes good sense.
When BLM was burning down cities and assaulting cops in cities throughout this nation, Trump did nothing however sit within the White Home tweeting “LAW & ORDER!”
We did it otherwise in Florida. I… pic.twitter.com/bh83GxxNZH
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) November 29, 2023
“When BLM was burning down cities and assaulting cops in cities throughout this nation, Trump did nothing however sit within the White Home tweeting ‘LAW & ORDER!’” DeSantis exclaimed. “We did it otherwise in Florida. I didn’t simply tweet.”
