Washington, DC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/27/2016 --DAWN BENNETT: Niger Innis is the national spokesperson for the Congress of Racial Equality, otherwise known as CORE. He's an MSNBC commentator and a political consultant. CORE is best known for its forward-thinking role in organizing acts designed to confront and end apartheid in America, as well as fighting for Americans of all colors, which brings me to question which most Americans have: is it inevitable we will soon be calling the next president of the United States President Trump? Niger, welcome to Financial Myth Busting.
NIGER INNIS: Great to be on with you.
BENNETT: So, like it or not, will Donald Trump be our next president?
INNIS: I think it's a very real possibility. I think if we could rewind to a year ago and ask the question could Donald Trump become the Republican nominee, I think nine out of ten Americans would have said no, and then one out of the ten would have been checked into insane asylum.
BENNETT: A few months ago, you did say that a superhero Republican candidate would be a blend of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, and, as it turns out, they were the final two remaining, with Trump of course winning out. What does Cruz have that Trump doesn't, and what does Trump have that Cruz did not?
INNIS: Well, what Cruz has and had is an undying commitment to the Constitution. I mean, he's truly a Constitutional Conservative. One of the other organizations I lead is the Tea Party Forward—you can find us at teapartyforward.com. One of the largest national Tea Party groups in the country, and what we share with Senator Cruz, which is why endorsed him, is a real fealty to the Constitution. We're not quite sure just yet about Donald Trump, we're all supporting him now, now that Ted Cruz has dropped out, and we certainly prefer Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, but we're certainly not sure if Donald Trump is going to be a Constitutional Conservative or could he very well be a big government Conservative. So that even if he makes the choices that we would like, how he executes those choices, through executive orders or through running roughshod over Congress and not recognizing the separation of powers, is something that would concern us, that wouldn't concern us as much with a Constitutional Conservative like Ted Cruz. On the flipside though, what thrills the Tea Party about Donald Trump is his ability to confound the media, his ability to not only circumvent the media, the establishment media, but to actually shape and confront the media and get them to talk, to say his talking points as opposed to him playing from their song sheet.
BENNETT: He does seem to have this chokehold on the media. It's fascinating even how he turned House Speaker Paul Ryan around. Ryan did capitulate and he is now going to support the presumptive nominee in whatever capacity necessary at the Republican National Convention. It's just fascinating to me the power that he has. But one of the knocks on Trump is that, he is even more unpopular with minorities than past Republican candidates, and the numbers definitely bear out. So, now that Trump's the presumptive Republican nominee how can he start undoing the damage that he has done with the minority voter?
INNIS: Well, I think actually has already started. By the way, let me say to your point about the Republican rallying around Donald Trump. I'm currently in Louisville, Kentucky, at the NRA Convention, and he is like a rock star down here. He is loved and there's tremendous rallying. Senator Mitch McConnell was down here as well, this is his home, and he even had a moment of unity with Donald Trump as well. But getting to the minority question, I think Donald Trump has already started. He reached out to a very good friend of mine, Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, the head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, which represents some 30 million Latino Evangelicals across the country, and Trump addressed them recently and gave a very conciliatory message. He didn't contradict himself in things he had said before. He just said that his message and my agenda of bringing jobs back into the country is going to be something that uplifts the Hispanic community. And I actually think where Trump has the ability to again confound conventional wisdom is actually in the black community. I think his talk of building a wall, the economic American nationalism that he promotes, it's something that would appeal greatly to a number of black Americans. Particularly, we hear in this election and we see it and we often say that it's a reflection of angry white males—Trump's popularity. But the little hidden story is that is not talked about as much is that there are a lot of black males and Latino males that are angry too, that are unemployed or underemployed and want an opportunity to earn a living and be breadwinners for their family.
BENNETT: Let's talk about Hilary and I'm going to bring her into this race discussion, because you always hear about Clintons' "firewall down South", which is of course a code for black voters in the South, and I'm wondering how reliable you think that support will be. We've seen Black Lives Matter protesters confront her on several occasions, and of course there is the continued controversy over her husband's signing of the crime bill that toughened penalties for drug related crimes. Is there any reason for Hillary to worry black voters may not be as enthusiastic about her candidacy as she assumes?
INNIS: Well, there are two manifestations of the black vote, right. There is a percentage of the black vote that Hillary can garner of those who come out. And then there is the question of turnout. I think there is no question about it that it is going to be very difficult for Hillary Clinton to garner the type of turnout which was record-setting in 2008, but pretty high in 2012, considering the feebleness of the Obama presidency, it was pretty impressive the turnout of the black vote in 2012. I don't think Hillary is going to get anything close to that. And more than that, if Donald Trump makes a real effort, doesn't go to this with conventional Republican playbook, which is to ignore the minority community, or to just overly obsess on the Latino vote alone, but if there is a real effort made by the Trump campaign to cut into the black vote, I think he could garner anywhere between 10-20%. And if he's anywhere close to 10%, to 15%, to 20% of the black vote, he not only wins this walking away, he wins this in a Reagan-like electoral landslide.
BENNETT: Speaking of Black Lives Matter, I know you have had some choice comments about their contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. What do you make of how the black rights movement has morphed into this outwardly confrontational activist group, and are these protesters really helping racial minorities along?
INNIS: No, they're not. I'm sure I'm not going to surprise you. I don't have a great deal of affection for the Black Lives Matter campaign, principally because their media celebration is not reflective of their popularity in the black community. There was a poll taken by Gallup during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement and spotlight on them in the August of 2015, this was post-Ferguson. And in that poll, it asked the question to all Americans, but in particular the blacks, it asked: do you think that there are too many police in the community, not enough police in the community, or just enough. When you combine those that believe that there were just enough, just the right amount of police in the community, or not enough in the community, that number was 89%. Those that thought that there were too many police in the community, that you would think would be reflective of the Black Lives Matter ideology, was 10 percent. So, it was nine to one in the black community of those who felt that we want as many cops that we have in the community right now, or we want more cops in the community. So I think the Black Lives Matter, while they are reflective of a progressive agenda, they're hardly reflective of the black agenda.
BENNETT: Let me ask the general question here. How do you think racism is going to play in the 2016 presidential race?
INNIS: Well, you know, after seven years of the first black president of the U.S., it saddens me that I think race relations or actually the perception of race relations is very bad. I actually think that the reality of race relations, forget the leaders, forget the President Obamas and the Hillary Clintons and even the Donald Trumps, and the Al Sharptons and the professional racial representatives that we have out there, and just look at the rank and file, look at younger people, look at the generation younger than us, the teenagers, 20-something, 30-something and what you find is that there is more color blindness in our society among that generation than I think you've had in American history. So I think actually race relations are strong among regular people, but I think the political culture has poisoned the well when it comes to race relations, and that saddens me coming seven years after President Obama. I think Hillary Clinton has no alternative, because she cannot say I want to be the third term of Barak Obama. We keep hearing that the economy is doing fairly well. Well, most people just don't believe it, most people just don't buy it. Wages are flat, people are working two or three jobs just to keep above water; there's not only a record-high unemployment among young black youth, young black male youth, but there is tremendous underemployment among all Americans. And so she can't really run on a third term of Barack Obama. So I think what she's going to do, and she has no choice what to do politically, is to demonize Donald Trump and say that he is anti-Hispanic, he is anti-black, he's anti-women, he's a rich white male, and I think that's going to be the campaign from Hillary Rodham Clinton, and I just don't know that that's going to stick. I think the American people are hungry for change and I think in a real turnabout, the Democratic nominee is going to be viewed largely as the establishment candidate and Donald Trump is going to be viewed as the insurgent.
BENNETT: Niger, talking about Hillary, you wrote a piece called Truth About Hillary, and I think it's astonishing that Hillary has taken millions off the Sultan of Brunei, who actually stones men for being gay. Then in the meantime, she's also saying one thing to wealthy donors and the New York gay community, but she's taking these millions from oil-rich nations that advocate murder or stoning for gay men. Can you talk a little bit about that?
INNIS: Absolutely. And the thing about this is that this is not some ancient custom from the Koran from a millennia ago. This was a bill that the Brunei parliament, or whatever their legislative body or their leadership body is, passed a year ago. This is a fairly recent phenomenon where they passed a law saying that it was legal and preferred that you stone gay men to death, which is just so horrific and barbaric. And nevertheless, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation took millions of dollars from the Brunei government. In fact, we have a commercial on YouTube, go to theteapartyforward channel on YouTube and you will see that commercial that we ran on the hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton. And one thing I find about millennials and younger folks, be they liberal, conservative, Republicans, or Democrats, is what they cannot stand more than anything with politicians is hypocrisy. And I think what that money speaks of, and Hillary Clinton's silence in condemning a new piece of legislation passed about stoning gay men to death is utter, total hypocrisy.
BENNETT: Trump is going to be naming his VP nominee. He says his pick is going to be political, meaning he wants the choice to help him win more votes. He has even signaled a willingness to pick a Democrat. What do you think he should do if he actually did pick a Democrat, would Republicans still turn out for him?
INNIS: Republicans would still turn out, but don't I think he needs a Democrat. Some people say he should pick a Democrat so he can create a fusion candidacy. The reality is that Donald Trump is viewed by many of us loyal Republicans as a fairly newcomer to the Republican party. So in a sense, he is the fusion candidate himself at the top of the ticket. So what I think he needs to do is really target where he is going to be vulnerable and where this election could very well be run. One, which is among suburban, predominantly white women, but suburban women generally. And I think there are several others, but two picks that would be outstanding. One would be Dr. Condoleezza Rice, who would bring foreign policy credentials, and she would also appeal to those suburban women. I also think another person that would be quite intriguing would be Marco Rubio, who would not only be generationally important, could appeal to millennials, obviously could appeal to Latinos, also has a certain degree of foreign policy credibility and I also think would be tremendously appealing to suburban women, which is going to be the swing vote. I think whoever wins, suburban women, or if Trump could at least neutralize Hillary's natural advantage among suburban women, he could very well take this election.
BENNETT: How can someone get in touch with you and/or read anything that is coming out of the Tea Party Forward or the Congress of Racial Equality?
INNIS: You can go to the congressofracialequality.org, that's our organization, and you can also go to Teapartyforward.com.
For over a quarter century, Dawn Bennett has been successfully guiding clients through the complexities of wealth management. Dawn Bennett provides individual investors, corporations and foundations with holistic investment strategies. Her unique vision and insight into market trends makes Bennett a much sought after expert resource with regular appearances on Fox News Channel, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and MSNBC as well as being featured in Business Week, Fortune, The NY Times, The NY Sun, Washington Business Journal in addition to her highly regarded weekly talk radio program - Financial Mythbusting. Through prudent and thoughtful advice, Dawn Bennett has strived to consistently provide the highest quality of guidance.
About Dawn Bennett
Dawn Bennett is CEO and Founder of Bennett Group Financial Services. She hosts a national radio program called Financial Myth Busting http://www.financialmythbusting.com.
She discusses educational topics and events in the financial news, along with her thoughts on the economy, financial markets, investments, and more with her live guests, who have included rock legend Ted Nugent, as well as Steve Forbes and Grover Norquist. Listeners can call 855-884-DAWN a as well as take podcasts on the road and forums for interaction.
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