MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes erased the existence of black Republicans Friday when he asserted that there's "only one party" to which African Americans can belong.
"White people in America have two parties to choose from and between those two parties they sort in all kinds of ways," Hayes said, describing different white voter profiles but asserting that all types of black Americans must join "the Democratic Party, because there's only one party they can be a part of because of the nature of structural white supremacy in America in the political coalitions."
Hayes argued that this "broader range of lives experience among African-American voters in the party" should help more liberal Democrats understand why so many black voters have chosen to vote for Joe Biden.
Hayes was responding to Princeton professor and MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude, who argued that a "politics of fear" was driving black voters to Biden from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), whose left-wing policy preferences are closer to Glaude's.
"It could very well be the case that since South Carolina and even before South Carolina the electorate has been kind of swamped with fear and panic," Glaude said, arguing that a lot of voters were thinking, "If we nominate Bernie Sanders, we're going to reelect Donald Trump, the country is going to go to hell."
"We heard all of this from Mike Bloomberg's campaign: 'If you nominate Bernie Sanders, down ballot we're going to lose all these candidates. We're going to lose the House. Nancy Pelosi is going to lose her gavel.' So there was a kind of politics of fear and in some ways inducing a panic among the electorate."
Glaude also acknowledged that some black voters "just simply agree with Biden."
In 2016, Donald Trump improved slightly on Mitt Romney's numbers with black voters, and some evidence shows he may receive more support this year. According to numbers from the pro-Democratic BlackPAC, which were cited in the New York Times, "Trump’s favorability rating among black voters overall increased from 7 percent in 2016 to 18 percent in 2019," with 13 percent "strongly" approving. This along with other statistics led BlackPAC to warn that "the loyalty of a quarter of black voters to the Democratic Party may be waning."