Democratic presidential candidate South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks during a campaign rally, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019, in Indianola, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Pandering Pete Buttigieg told supporters in Sacramento, CA that “Nobody is experiencing the pain of living under this presidency more than black Americans and other Americans of color which is why we absolutely must come together to defeat this President in November.”

Four Pinocchio’s. This statement is absolutely false. If there’s one message Americans understand by now, it is that the strong U.S. economy has driven the unemployment rate down to record lows for blacks, Hispanics, and other minority groups. Given that Trump has been in office for over three years, most Americans know that his policies have had a lot to do with it. Additionally, he’s passed criminal justice reform and has made a serious effort to reach out to the black community. I think many blacks will recognize Buttigieg’s remark as pandering.

“the pain”https://t.co/iBHHJLaXiO https://t.co/hSlXNLHEnt

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) February 15, 2020

Polling group Rasmussen Reports quickly responded to Elliott’s tweet and attached results from a recent survey which shows that President Trump’s support among black likely voters stood at 43% on January 31. The figure for blacks who “strongly” approve of the President was 34%. Approval among “other non-white” likely voters came in at 53%.

Mayor Pete is trying to shore up support among black voters, an area where he lags behind most of his primary rivals.

The Washington Post published an article in January entitled, “Buttigieg’s black-voter problem, by the numbers,” in which they cite a black Congressman, Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-MD), who recently endorsed Buttigieg. In his endorsement message, Brown addressed Mayor Pete’s struggle among blacks and attributed it to his low name recognition.

The Post writes that there’s more to the story than that.

A January Washington Post/Ipsos poll shows Buttigieg with the second-highest unfavorable rating among black voters, 21%, of the major Democratic candidates, despite having the third-lowest name recognition. His favorable rating is 30% in this poll. (Bloomberg’s unfavorable rating among black voters was at 25% in this poll.)

So, all of this means Buttigieg needs to increase his support among blacks.

Does he really think he can accomplish that by lying to them? Rather than that, perhaps he could address the race-related controversies he faced during his tenure as the mayor of South Bend, IN similar to the way Barack Obama spoke about his involvement with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Obama failed to convince me, but I was never going to vote for him anyway.)

For example, a wire-tapping scandal inside the South Bend police department led Buttigieg to ask for the resignation of the police chief, who was black. This episode touched off a firestorm which resulted in the deep mistrust many in the city’s black community feels today.

I’m not a campaign advisor. I just know that lying to voters will only alienate them. Americans aren’t stupid.

President Trump has not inflicted pain upon blacks and other minority groups. In fact, he is responsible for providing them with a strong economy, record low employment, criminal justice reform, and he has reached out to them in ways that the Democratic Party never has.

Claiming otherwise is a losing argument.