A recent “prickly” interview with Bret Baier went into “full-meltdown” when the Fox News anchor suggested to Republican candidate John Kasich that even his supporters “don’t get” how he expects to win the GOP nomination, particularly after having won only his home state of Ohio.
Kasich isn’t the only long-shot running for office this year who’s refusing to give up despite the odds. DeRay Mckesson, the celebrated #BlackLivesMatter protester and founder of Campaign Zero and its offshoot, the Police Use of Force Project, this weekend explained why he’s still among the more than 15 candidates who actually want to become the next mayor of Baltimore, even though he’s polling below 1 percent.
@deray on the future of protest and #BlackLivesMatter movement https://t.co/g4dVI5VC9g #NewsOneNow @cornellbelcher @DaVocalMinority
— Lauren Victoria Burke (@LVBurke) April 4, 2016
NBC News reports that Mckesson told a meeting of current and former black journalists, “A lot of people ask me about the poll. I’m low in the poll. The poll came out 30 days into my candidacy. Seventy-five percent of the people were age 50 and above and it was 100 percent landlines, which is not my demographic in any capacity.”
That explains his dismissal of the poll numbers, but why was Mckesson speaking to journalists in Washington? Last we checked with the expert map-makers at Vox, Baltimore was in Maryland. Mckesson was an invited guest of reporter Richard Prince, who arranged the meeting, but it certainly wasn’t Mckesson’s first trip to D.C., as he’s become a regular at the White House.
As Twitchy has reported, the media’s favorite #BlackLivesMatter protester was a visitor to the White House years before that movement ever started and likely knows his way around the place better than Kasich ever will.
Campaign Zero aims to place strict limits on police use of force and require officers to undergo mandatory implicit racial bias testing before being deployed. In the meantime, Baltimore last year had the highest per capita murder rate in the city’s history, logging 342 homicides in 2015.
Despite his sub-basement poll numbers, Mckesson also made it into Newsweek yesterday, although a lengthy profile of the mayoral candidate never once mentions his connections to the White House or meetings with President Obama or Valerie Jarrett.
.@deray Mckesson on education, safety, and why there’s more to his campaign for Baltimore mayor https://t.co/Fjx7c2K8sm
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 4, 2016
Former GOP candidate Marco Rubio took a lot of heat for missing a vote in D.C.; Mckesson, on the other hand, is facing criticism for spending too much time there.
https://twitter.com/DavidPontious/status/715660391582470145
@DavidPontious I feel you. I'm confused about the whole thing myself.
— stream cash race by tinashe (@jer_collins) March 31, 2016
I never thought of being at the White House as insulting to Baltimoreans. Or building relationships to leverage. https://t.co/S375r7EfyQ
— deray (@deray) April 4, 2016
So, I can't take a meeting at the White House while I'm running for mayor? Is this standard for all candidates? https://t.co/1PMKLRda8P
— deray (@deray) April 4, 2016
There are standards for candidates?
Related:
Today’s Lesson at Yale From #BlackLivesMatter’s DeRay Mckesson: ‘In Defense of Looting’
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