Darrell Scott, pastor of New Spirit Revival Center and one of the few black pastors actually supporting Donald Trump, left the former mayor of Detroit dumbfounded when he suggested that it was Trump who had bailed out the auto industry.
During an interview Friday morning on CNN’s “New Day,” Scott defended the Republican presidential nominee’s recent remarks towards African-Americans, claiming that he was simply trying to allure black voters by describing the problems in their communities and then vowing to repair it.
“Detroit is in bad shape,” Scott said. “It’s in bad shape economically, it’s in bad shape as far as crime is concerned, and so you have a candidate that’s saying, ‘I want to improve the conditions of the city economically, I want to improve the condition of the city as far as crime is concerned’ — you can’t turn a deaf ear to that, whoever it is.”
Dennis Archer, the other guest on the program and the former mayor of Detroit from 1994 to 2002, agreed with Scott’s statement that voters need to pay close attention to the candidates and their promises of reform. However, he disagreed with the pastor’s description of the Motor City.
The two men engaged in a heated back and forth until CNN co-host Alisyn Camrota jumped in and urged Archer to let Scott finish his statements.
“You have someone saying, ‘I’m going to be put in a position to help Detroit in the areas that it most needs help,’” Scott said.
“He bailed out the auto industry,” Scott insisted, incorrectly.
Archer was confused, and rightfully so. Former President George W. Bush passed a bill for a temporary bailout of the failing auto industry, but it was President Barack Obama who in 2008 helped put together a more inclusive bailout that prevented Chrysler and General Motors from going under during the economic crash.
Realizing that his statement was way off, Scott said, “I mean, he just, uh, he didn’t bail out the auto industry. What I’m saying is, he had been working in relationship with the auto industry in order to stimulate the American auto industry.”
The look on Archer’s face made it clear that he was disgusted by the pastor’s false statements.