Trump Rallies White Supremacists with “Stand Back, Stand By” Call, while Cambridge Analytica Targeted Black Voters for “Deterrence”

On the heels of last night’s Presidential debate, where Donald Trump called on the “Proud Boys” white supremacist group to “stand back” and “stand by”, the Colorado Democratic Party is calling on the Colorado Republican Party to not only condemn this statement, but to answer questions about the bombshell report that -- through the data firm Cambridge Analytica -- the Trump Campaign targeted Black, Latino, and Asian voters for “deterrence” of voting in 2016.  In other words, vote suppression.

Morgan Caroll, Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, released the following statement:

“There’s a pattern emerging. Donald Trump not only refused to condemn white supremacy at last night’s debate, but in fact delivered a rallying cry for an extremist group to ‘stand by’. Given this statement by Donald Trump -- and the bombshell report that his campaign actively sought to ‘deter’ people of color from voting -- one can only conclude that the President is seeking the white supremacist vote and does not want to see people of color vote. That’s disturbing. 

“Ken Buck and the Colorado Republican Party need to answer three very simple questions:

1. Will they unequivocally condemn white supremacy when the head of their own party wouldn’t?
2. Do they support Donald Trump’s rallying cry to the Proud Boys?
3. Will they pledge to refrain from disinformation campaigns around voting, vote suppression tactics, or using any of the stolen data from Cambridge Analytica in Colorado campaigns in 2020?

“Colorado voters deserve answers.”

The report went on to say:

In 16 key battleground states, millions of Americans were separated by an algorithm into one of eight categories, also described as ‘audiences’, so they could then be targeted with tailored ads on Facebook and other platforms.

One of the categories was named ‘Deterrence’, which was later described publicly by Trump’s chief data scientist as containing people that the campaign “hope don’t show up to vote”.

Analysis by Channel 4 News shows Black Americans – historically a community targeted with voter suppression tactics – were disproportionately marked ‘Deterrence’ by the 2016 campaign.

In total, 3.5 million Black Americans in swing states were marked ‘Deterrence’.

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