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What Black Men in a Detroit Barbershop Had to Say About Trump, Harris

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  October 18, 2024 8:00 AM

Vice President Kamala Harris is losing ground among black voters just weeks until Election Day and as early voting in many states has already kicked off. Her poll numbers among this demographic trail her Democratic predecessors, particularly among black men. Former President Barack Obama received 95 percent of the black vote, while Hillary Clinton pulled in about 91 percent support. In 2020, Biden received about 90 percent of the black vote. Harris, meanwhile, is only seeing about 79 percent support among this group, which as The New York Times points out, "is large enough to imperil her chances of winning key battleground states.” 

That's what makes Lawrence Jones' recent interview at a barbershop in Detroit all the more interesting. As the Fox News reporter explained, he believes “the barbershop is the center of everything in the community in black America.” While Jones said the black men were pretty evenly split on Trump vs. Harris, the comments some offered to explain their support of the 45th president are a big red flag for the Harris-Walz camp about how much kitchen table issues are affecting Americans of all stripes. And it’s probably too late to change such opinions now.

“At the end of the day, I'm Trump because my eyes are open,” one barber said. “I can see that he was doing a lot better than what we're going through right now. You can't even go to the grocery stores right now without making a life decision on what you want to get. You know you gotta compromise, we didn’t have to go through that four years ago.”

Another barber told Jones "just being able to live on a day to day basis, it has become a little harder at this point in time."

When Jones asked which candidate would be the best to address crime in the nation, one man immediately said Kamala Harris, but an older gentleman piped up and reminded him about her record. 

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"We have forgotten - our memory is so short right now," he began. "Was it not Vice President Harris who supported what? Defund the police."  

Watch the full interview below, where Jones discusses some of his other conversations that didn't make the tape:

Update: Trump also went to a barbershop in the Bronx with Jones, where he was well received.