February 1, 2017

Trump on Black History Month: Frederick Douglass “Has Done an Amazing Job”

He also praised Omarosa.


During a listening session at the White House to honor Black History Month on Wednesday, President Donald Trump praised Frederick Douglass, who died in 1895, as “somebody who’s done an amazing job” and whose work is “being recognized more and more.”

The remarks immediately called into question whether the president knew who the abolitionist actually was:

Trump went on to use the listening session to give shout-outs to his own black surrogates, including Omarosa Manigualt, the former Celebrity Apprentice contestant who is now an adviser to the president. Despite once labeling her an untrustworthy liar, Trump on Wednesday said she was an “actually very nice person.”

The president also took the opportunity to bash CNN as “fake news” and plug Fox News, a network he says has “treated him very nice.”

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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