A black woman, Jo Anne Price, who owns a pro-Donald Trump store in Virginia, gave a CNN reporter and panel fits after being interviewed by the network.
CNN correspondent Elle Reeve spoke to her and several customers and questioned them about their support for the former president.
The interview first aired during “Anderson Cooper 360” where they mentioned that Vice President Kamala Harris’ support among Black voters higher than President Joe Biden’s, , 77% to 64%, but the former president’s among the group was “unchanged at around 13%.”
During the interview, Price highlighted some merchandise she sells, which included swimsuits, Confederate flag merchandise, and a faux “White Privilege Card.”
“Every woman ought to have one of these,” she said about the Confederate Rebel Flag swimsuit.
“It’s one of those things that when people see one, then they want one.” She said, and said the Confederate Flag cowboy hat was the “same thing…because people don’t think you have the nerve to do it.”
A black male customer said he showed a state trooper his white privilege card and the trooper laughed and then did not give him a ticket.
The store owner said that there was “no way” she would have even thought about voting for Biden or Harris, “absolutely not,” and she said that the attacks on the former president “have done nothing more than strengthen Black people’s connection to him, because now he’s someone who is the target of a struggle.”
She said she had done prison ministries for five years and “if you’re a convicted felon and then somebody else is a convicted felon, there’s a camaraderie there.”
The reporter attempted to get her to say something negative about the former president when he mentioned that Trump said he did not know what race Harris was.
“How do you make sense of how Trump talks about” the vice president and her race because “he sort of suggested he doesn’t understand her biracial background,” when he said that “first she was Indian and then she was Black?”
“I don’t understand it either,” the store owner said. “She’s Indian, and she’s Jamaican.”
“Yeah –” the reporter said.
“Is she Black?” the store owner said.
“I mean, do you not think she’s Black?” the reporter said.
“Is she? Was she born here?” Price said.
“Yes,” Reeve said, as the vice president was born in California.
“Yes, were her parents citizens? No,” Price said.
“Okay, but we have birthright citizenship in America –” Reeve said.
“Mm-hmm. We call that anchor –” Price hit back.
“People can immigrate here and not be citizens but have green cards and work permits,” Reeve contended.
“Yeah, that’s true. However, she can claim to be Black because of a Jamaican father, and that’s her right,” Price said, mentioning that she had a “melting pot” in her family, too.
“Herself, she could have a blended family. What I’m saying is, is his comments about that, I think he’s making a point and, you know, I’m not, I’m not so disturbed by that,” Price said.
“But what is the point he’s making?” the CNN reporter said.
“The point he’s making simply is, is that she is not a Black-Black person,” Price responded.
Price said that Trump “has been mocked, scrutinized, slandered, dragged into court,” but “this man is still standing, and standing strong, because he knows that he was chosen.”
She said that at one time she was a Democrat because her parents were, but she started to move away from the Party in the 1980s because of abortion.
“I’m not going to be in a Democrat plantation. I’m not going to be on a Republican plantation. And this is what I love about President Trump, OK? He’s pulling us from both of those plantations, and he’s pulling us into this one big area, which is Americanism,” she said.
