Donald Trump predicted that he would win "over 95 percent" of the African-American vote in 2020 because the Republican nominee "recognizes that he's not going to get a lot of those votes the first time around" in November, surrogate Ben Carson said on Saturday.
"But if he gets into office and creates the programs, he will," the retired pediatric neurosurgeon told Uma Pemmaraju on Fox News.
Carson, who also competed in the primaries, was referring to the programs to develop jobs and revive the nation's inner cities that Trump promised in a speech on Friday in Michigan.
"What the hell do you have to lose?" Trump posed in his appeal to African Americans during a rally in Dimondale, Mich. "At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote — because I will produce.
"I will produce for the inner cities and I will produce for the African Americans," he said.
Carson said that Trump's appeal to blacks, long a Democratic stronghold, proved that he was "starting to reach out.
"Traditionally, the Republican Party has not reached out to the African-American community, to the Hispanic communities, because they've conceded those to the Democrats.
"Donald Trump recognizes that if our country is to succeed, everybody has to succeed," Carson said.
He dismissed attacks that Trump has made his pitch to African Americans before largely white audiences, saying that "it really doesn't matter what he does. He's going to be criticized."
Dimondale, where he spoke on Friday, is a suburb of Lansing and is located in the southwestern part of Michigan.
Carson added that he expected Trump to make later appeals to African-American communities.
"Without question, he will be going into the inner cities and talking to some of these groups," he told Pemmaraju. "No question about that."
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