By Tom Travis
In the days ahead of one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in recent memory, local blues musician turned politician, 2nd Ward Councilperson Maurice Davis, is making waves with his endorsement of President Donald Trump.
Democrats “the party of hate” Davis asserts
In a phone interview with EVM, Davis said, “I’ve found out that the Republicans is not the party of hate, it’s the Democrats. Democrats are the ones selling the idea ‘get out the vote’ ‘GOTV’ when they really should be saying, ‘Look if you black you vote Democrat.’ As if we no longer accept you if you don’t.
“White people vote 48-50 per-cent one way or the other, Democrat or Republican, and they get along just fine,” Davis said. But “91 per-cent of black folks vote Democrat, and we’re killing each other.”
Asked whether he will switch party affiliation, Davis said, “With as much hate as I’m getting I’m thinking about it.”
Davis said he didn’t choose to go “public” with his endorsement for President Trump, but the choice was made for him by his response to a question he received on the Detroit radio show NO BS News Hour with Charlie LeDuff. On the show Davis was asked who he was voting for in the upcoming election and Davis said he was thinking about voting for Trump.
That endorsement of Trump ignited a firestorm of responses from voters in Flint. Davis told EVM, “It got negative when these activists spun it that way saying that I’m a bootlicker, I’m a sellout. I’m a this and I’m a that. It’s voter intimidation. I wish you could print it. I don’t give a damn. Because people are dying. Look, when Trump said ‘You have nothing to lose,’ he was talking to me.”
“But my whole deal is that I’m one vote and I represent an impoverished community in the City of Flint. So I’m trying to get all the help I can. I don’t care if it’s Democrat or Republican. I’ve been a Democrat all my life and nothing got done.”
Davis makes multiple appearances on radio and national TV with Trump endorsement
Davis said that Breitbart news outlet picked up his appearance on the Charlie Leduff radio show and shared it with national news outlets like Fox News and MSNBC. Fox’s Sean Hannity had Davis as a guest last Thursday night and can be viewed on this link.
Davis added that if the black population of Flint voted for President Trump Flint would be in a better place. He explained, “I’m 64 years old and have been a Democrat all my life and I voted for Hillary Clinton four years ago. Because we’re living in foreclosure of homes, entitlement lines for food, water is cut off and shut off and we have no funding. People are dying.”
When President Barak Obama visited Flint, Davis recalled that he watched from the back of the room where the President famously drank a glass of filtered Flint water. “That’s the closest I ever got to President Obama. And his dialog was middle-class and rich. But President Trump comes all the way down to the poor.”
Davis blasted, “But they [Democrats] don’t want that narrative in their party because they’re afraid of party politics. But people are dying. Our people are drinking poisoned water. The nation was told that it was fixed. Come to find out, just like I know, it’s not fixed. All the funding that came in, $100,000,000. How you pay someone a hundred million dollars for something you still can’t drink and call it replaced? Come on now? This is not right.”
“We’ve got to have someone who can stand up, a real political person, and say, ‘look, y’all are not being treated fairly,” said Davis, referring to his assessment of Trump’s leadership.
Davis says media bias to blame for negative perception of Trump
“The narrative is so negative through the media. Trump can do no good according to the media. They’ve been brainwashed to hate that man and his administration. When he [Trump] visited Flint he got off Air Force One and went straight to the Water Plant. But the media says, ‘he’s white and he’s racist.” The racist side of politics, I’m sorry to say, is the damn Democrat party,” Davis pleaded.
A rumor circulated after Davis’s endorsement that he got kicked as he passed out Trump flyers at a gas station on the north side of Flint. Davis said that did not happen but it was put out because, he said, “You know, it’s just hate. This madness needs to be exposed. And who ever is behind it needs to be locked up. And if it keeps up I will be contacting the Attorney General because this is the worst type of intimidation.”
“The media wanted us to think the rally last night [Pence’s appearance at Bishop Airport] was supposed to be full of hate. No, It was like going to a church meeting. White folks are not racist. These Black folks are so racist they killing each other. And the narrative must change or else we’ll annihilate each other,” Davis said.
EVM Managing Editor, Tom Travis, can be reached at tomntravis@gmail.com
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