Black Americans for the President’s Agenda co-founder and Treasurer Vernon Robinson is unapologetic amid the ferocious backlash he is facing for running a radio ad that suggests blacks might be lynched if white Democrats win in November.
"It is always great that the radical left is screaming like stuck pigs," Robinson told the Washington Examiner Friday. "That means it is bothering them and I’m not perturbed at all."
This is a real radio ad currently running in Arkansas in support of Republican Congressman French Hill on radio stations targeted to the African American community. I don't even have words to describe it. pic.twitter.com/vpzt1nGPlc
— (((Ben Tribbett))) (@notlarrysabato) October 18, 2018
The ad features two women discussing the sexual assault allegations leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The women argue that Democrats are trying to change the presumption of innocence from innocent until proven guilty to guilty until proven innocent.
"I’m voting to keep Congressman French Hill and the Republicans because we have to protect our men and boys,” one woman in the ad says. “We can’t afford to let white Democrats take us back to bad old days of race verdicts, life sentences, and lynchings when a white girl screams rape."
Both Hill and his challenger have publicly denounced the ad, but that doesn't dissuade Robinson. He said his ultimate goal in 2018 is ensuring that Republicans capture 15 percent of the Black vote in the South and 20 percent in the Midwest. If they can do that, he believes Democrats don't stand a chance.
"The congressman has to run his campaign. My obligation is to make sure that critical issues that 15 percent of the black electorate that agree with the president on are present in a forceful way," Robinson said, adding that Democrats historically get 90 percent of the black vote.
Robinson, who has been dubbed "the black Jesse Helms" and has run for Congress in North Carolina three times, said he launched the $50,000 radio ad in support of Rep. French Hill, R-Arkansas, to encourage black voters in Little Rock to vote Republican.
His group is focused on pushing President Trump's agenda on a range of issues, including: anti-abortion measures, school choice, jobs, economic opportunity, wealth creation, securing the borders, securing second amendment rights, and criminal justice reform.
Robinson said the ad addresses the ramifications of the #MeToo movement. "I believe the MeToo movement has shifted the burden from the accuser to the accused. I haven’t heard a Democrat contend that point yet," Robinson said. "Particularly, I'm concerned about how the MeToo movement affects the African-American community."
He then repeated a line from the ad. "If the Democrats could do that to a white justice on the Supreme Court without any evidence or corroboration … what is going to happen to the average black male? What will happen to our fathers, our sons if a white girl lies on them?" Robinson said.
Reporters are frequently calling Robinson to inquire about the ad, calling it racist, among other descriptors. He isn't shaken by it, though. Robinson said he tries to turn the tables on those who describe the ad as racist, reminding people of the character Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird and the murder of Emmett Till, who was wrongfully accused by a white woman of assaulting and groping her and later lynched.
"I'm having a lot of fun torturing the folks that call. They sort of don’t want to say that the #MeToo movement has gone too far and is dangerous to black men," Robinson said. "I ask them, 'Should we consider the accuser of Tom Robinson? Why don’t you believe his accuser? She at least had a witness who said she witnessed the crime?' They fumble and say, 'It is not a court case (re: Kavanaugh).' Emmett Till? You going to believe his accuser?"