"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin brushed aside any apprehensions about Black men potentially supporting former President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, asserting that their support for President Joe Biden remained unwavering.
"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin dismissed the notion that Black men might vote for former President Trump in November, despite polling showing President Biden had lost a portion of the Black vote since 2020.
"81% of Black men, 81%, are in the Democratic Party. So I don't want to hear any more that Black men are voting for Trump. Black women resoundingly will show up for Biden, and they're going to bring their sons, they're going to bring their grandsons, they're going to bring their husbands and the Black vote will turn out for President Biden," Hostin said Thursday.
Co-host Sara Haines pushed back, saying Hostin referenced a poll that said Biden had 92% of the Black vote in 2020, noting that the "trend was down." Biden's Black support has since dipped to 77%, according to a Pew Research survey released in May.
The survey found that Biden had more favorable approval ratings among Black people earlier in his term. Fifty-five percent of Black Americans approve of Biden, according to the May Pew Research survey, compared to 87% in March 2021.
Haines sounded the alarm on the male Black vote earlier in the discussion, and suggested it was because the Democratic Party had a messaging problem.
"Among Black voters in polls, like every other American, they're concerned with the economy, so when you look at Donald Trump, what you have to break down is Donald Trump tanked the economy in 2020 partially due to a pandemic, but he exacerbated the damage of that economical hit because of the way he politicized it and the way he handled pandemic," Haines said.
Haines said even though people might not be feeling the work Biden has done on the economy, he had "the lowest unemployment level in 50 years."
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg criticized the polls in general and argued that the results of one survey that had only spoken to 1,000 people do not represent the views of all Americans.
Democratic strategists, including James Carville, have sounded the alarm on Democratic Party's losses among the key voting bloc that helped the president win in 2020.
"I've been very vocal about this," Carville said in April. "It's horrifying our numbers among younger voters, particularly younger Blacks, younger Latinos … younger people of color. Particularly males."
"We're not shedding them, they're leaving in droves," he added.
Carville warned in 2023 that the biggest story following the 2022 midterm elections was "abysmally low Black turnout."
Hostin's comments come as polls show Biden's approval ratings among Black voters have declined since he took office. A recent poll from the Pew Research Center found that only 55% of Black Americans approve of the job Biden is doing as president. This is down from 87% in March 2021.
The decline in Biden's approval ratings among Black voters is likely due to a number of factors, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the economic downturn, and the recent rise in crime.
However, it is important to note that polls are only a snapshot in time and can be inaccurate. It is possible that Biden's approval ratings among Black voters will improve in the months leading up to the election.
It is also important to note that the Black vote is not monolithic. There is a wide range of views within the Black community, and not all Black voters will support Biden in 2023. However, the Black vote is still a key voting bloc, and Biden will need to do well among Black voters in order to win re-election.
