Donald Trump’s reaction to the shooting death of NBA star Dwyane Wade’s cousin spurred new criticism Saturday amid the Republican presidential nominee’s effort to gain the support of African-American voters before November’s presidential election.
Nykea Aldridge, 32, was killed by crossfire Friday as she pushed a baby stroller in south Chicago, authorities said. Her first cousin, a shooting guard for the Chicago Bulls, participated in a panel discussion about guns and violence hosted by ESPN earlier that evening.
“Dwyane Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!” the Republican candidate said Saturday afternoon through his official Twitter account. The candidate’s tweet was a corrected version of one earlier in the morning which misspelled Mr. Wade’s first name. The initial, misspelled tweet has been deleted from Mr. Trump’s account.
Mr. Trump’s response sparked a social media backlash as critics condemned the candidate for evoking’s Aldridge’s death for political purposes.
“What sort of a scumbag would jump on a murder to exploit it for his own personal gain?” tweeted Col. Morris Davis, a retired member of the U.S. Air Force who previously served as a chief prosecutor for the military’s tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.
“I am just…I am so offended by this I can barely breathe,” actress Holly Robinson Peete said on Twitter. “My prayers and condolences go out to the Wade family.”
Mr. Trump spoke further of Friday’s shooting in a subsequent tweet posted a little over an hour after his initial musing had begun to make waves. “My condolences to Dwyane Wade and his family, on the loss of Nykea Aldridge. They are in my thoughts and prayers,” he tweeted.
Mr. Trump’s latest social media snafu comes as the Republican candidate struggles to gain support among African American voters with just over two months left until the presidential election. Last month polls showed Mr. Trump garnered zero percent of the vote among black potential voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and subsequent surveys have largely suggested his support elsewhere lingers in the low single digits with respect to African-Americans.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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