National political reporter Neil W. McCabe said the scene of former President Donald Trump visiting a bodega in West Harlem last week “absolutely” resonates with Hispanic and Black voters, which ultimately makes the left “very concerned.”
Trump visited West Harlem last Tuesday after attending his ongoing trial in the case brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, where he was met by supportive chants, including supporters shouting “four more years.”
McCabe said despite Trump being mandated to stay in New York for his court trial, the former president has the ability to capitalize and win over voters within the state by making appearances in different communities as he did in West Harlem.
“I just read an article, I think it was in the Atlantic yesterday, saying that when Trump went to that bodega, Democrats should be very concerned because those constituents of the Democratic Party – those ethnic and tribal constituents of the Democratic Party – they’re not supposed to be cheering for Donald Trump. They’re not supposed to be chanting ‘four more years’ when he walks down their sidewalk,” McCabe said on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“I don’t know how [Democrats] handle it. They’re basically keeping [Trump] under house arrest because he has to be in court four days a week. Basically, he’s stuck in New York. He might as well keep doing what he’s doing. He might win New York if he keeps going,” McCabe added.
McCabe went on to note how the neighborhoods of Queens and Brooklyn have consistently “been flipping conservative so much so that they’re constantly being redistricted to reconfigure and gerrymander these districts.”
“Certainly, the neighborhoods of Queens and Brooklyn – Staten Island has always been a Republican bastion – but the neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens have been flipping conservative and flipping Republicans so much they’re constantly being redistricted to reconfigure and gerrymander these districts,” McCabe said.
“[Democrats] are not winning because they’re winning the argument or the support of the people, they’re winning because they’re playing the games of process and redistricting, and now we’re seeing the lawfare,” McCabe added.
McCabe also said he believes Trump has the best chance at restoring a Republican majority in the New York Senate, which was lost to Democrats in the 2018 elections.
“There are a lot of conservatives and Republicans up there. It’s just that Michael Bloomberg jacked up the Republican Party. It’s going to take Trump to realign it. For decades, the Republican Party controlled the State Senate of New York… But since then, because of what Bloomberg did to completely jack up the New York Republican Party…they lost their way, they lost their narrative, and when they lost control of the State Senate, basically, the Republican Party’s out of business,” McCabe said.
“Trump can bring that back, and you’re going to see some amazing turnout in November. That’s going to help out some of those House races and certainly a lot of those state legislative and Senate races,” McCabe added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.