NEW YORK CITY, New York — Omarosa Manigault, a senior adviser to 2016 GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump for African American Engagement, told Breitbart News exclusively that Sean “Diddy” Combs is right about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton taking the black vote for granted.
“Everywhere we go, we’re hearing African American voters say they’re sick and tired of having their votes taken for granted, and that’s why Mr. Trump is getting such a good reception for his engagement efforts,” Omarosa, a one-time Apprentice contestant who’s now working with Trump on black outreach, said in a statement in response to Diddy’s appearance on MSNBC with the Rev. Al Sharpton on Sunday. “Diddy is right — politicians like Hillary Clinton and the Dems should start showing for the first time that they actually care instead of assuming they will automatically get our vote every four years. The Dems should know that there’s a big difference between asking and assuming.”
Combs joined Sharpton on Sunday to talk about the charter school he opened in Harlem in New York City, and what he thinks about the presidential election. Combs talked about how when growing up in Harlem, he attended his own after-school program.
“I remember that extra attention I would get by the tutors,” Combs told Sharpton. “It was something that was needed, because in the educational system in the inner cities, they were so behind what was going on in the other communities in Scarsdale, Westchester, different parts of the Bronx, it was so disproportioned, that if it wasn’t for a program like that I wouldn’t have been able to pass my grades and I wouldn’t have been able to make it really through school. So as the years went by, I ran a marathon — education has always been important to me — I ran a marathon and we proudly raised $3 million for the New York City public school system. My thing was, we had a lot of concerns and complaints about the educational system and how our children are treated. I’m a person of action, so instead of me talking about it, I wanted to go and work with the system and then show them a better way to do it.”
Combs noted he is aiming to “revolutionize” the “junior high and high school levels of education,” because he thinks “we have to prepare our kids for the realities of what’s out there.”
“We have to prepare them to be leaders,” he said. “So those curriculums that are out there now are dated. That’s not the times that we are in. So as a community if we don’t update our curriculums just as the curriculums are updated in Connecticut and the rest of the parts of New York, then our children will constantly lag behind. This has that domino effect that people don’t understand, when they are wondering what’s going on. It’s our conditions. You can’t make no money unless you have an education, so it starts there. For me it starts there. So instead of talking about it, we’re going to do something about it. So I’m very proud to say that today I opened up my charter school with Dr. Steven Perry. It’s called Capital Prep Harlem and it’s incredible.”
Sharpton responded by saying to the audience: “I’m telling you, it’s awesome.”
Sharpton noted next that Combs does “know” Mrs. Clinton as well as Mr. Trump, and without asking for him to “get into politics” asked what whoever the next president needs to know to “help young people become successful.”
“I think it’s all about education,” Combs replied. “It’s all about education and jobs and creating different programs for them to have opportunities. You know, it’s hard to start your life after high school or college and you just can’t get a job and there’s nothing really set up for you to be able to get out there and just excel. So I think that number one they have to pay attention and they have to speak to young people. If they don’t, a lot of young people aren’t going to show up. They’re very disenfranchised.”
“And my number one thing, to be honest, as black people I feel like we put President Obama in the White House and when I look back, I just wanted more done for my people, because that’s the name of the game,” he added. “This is politics. You put somebody in office, you get in return the things you care about for your communities. I think we got a little bit short-changed. That’s not knocking the president, we got a lot going on — a lot of balls juggling, he’s done an excellent job — but I think it’s time to turn up the heat because the black vote is going to decide who is the next president of the United States.”
Combs continued by calling on Hillary Clinton, who has done hardly anything for the black community, to step it up.
“So I think Mrs. Clinton, Hillary Clinton, I hope she starts to directly talk to the black community,” Combs said. “It really makes me feel almost hurt that our issues are not addressed and we’re really a big part of the voting bloc.”
Combs added, too, that “I honestly think that the heat has to be turned up so much that as a community we got to hold our vote.”
“Don’t pacify yourself,” Combs told the black community. “Really revolutionize yourself. Make them come for our vote. It’s a whole different strategy, but I think we need to hold our vote because I don’t believe any of them.”
Sharpton said “that’s a big announcement,” before Combs replied “you can get the vote — it don’t have to be held that long — but you going to have to come get it.”
Unlike Clinton, who barely ever holds public events — and whenever she does only attacks Trump without offering policy solutions — Trump is actually working to earn the votes of black voters across the country. He appeared in Philadelphia last week, and then on Saturday traveled to Detroit where he attended a black church’s Saturday service. The events were smashing successes, and during them Trump pushed education, economic opportunity and jobs in his plans he laid out — all things Combs was talking about with Sharpton. Trump’s uplifting message of hope and opportunity in Detroit won him enormous praise.