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Embattled ABC News president Kim Godwin called out Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for claiming “black people like me” because of his multiple indictments — labeling his comments “as racist as they come.”
Godwin — who was effectively demoted two weeks ago by parent company Disney after it installed Debra OConnell to oversee the slumping but still top-rated news division — sent a memo to staff last Saturday denouncing the former president after he spoke the previous night at the Black Conservative Federation Gala in Columbia, SC.
“No matter one’s politics, the fact that a person running for President of the United States made these remarks period — but also to a public crowd — and with so many black people present — and that they stand with him — is mind-blowing. Shocking,” she wrote in the memo, which was first reported by Semafor.
Trump, who posted his mugshot on social media after being indicted in Georgia on state charges of tampering with the 2020 election, was also indicted last June by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House.
“I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time and a lot of people said that that’s why the black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” Trump told the South Carolina crowd ahead of his landslide victory over the state’s former governor Nikki Haley.
He also faces election interference charges in the District of Columbia and was hit with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the Manhattan “hush money” case involving porn star Stormy Daniels.
He added that black voters can relate because “what’s happening to me happens to them.”
Godwin — the first black person to head a major network — took issue with Trump’s assertions.
“These remarks are as racist as they come,” she wrote in the memo.
Godwin’s comments were more critical than ABC News has previously been willing to be in its coverage of Trump, according to Semafor.
In one ABC News online report, the story quoted Trump’s political opponents who called him a racist. Another story on ABC News’ website described the comments as “controversial” in its headline.
A source close to ABC said Godwin’s email was “part of a larger editorial conversation” about how to cover Trump’s statement.
“This is not a sole, one-off email she sent to the organization,” the insider told The Post.
When the network discussed the incident on air, ABC anchors said Trump’s comments were “widely criticized as racist.”
Godwin’s future at ABC News has come into question amid a series of missteps during her two-and-a-half-year tenure — and softening ratings at top-ranked shows “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight with David Muir.”
Her new boss, OConnell, has hit the ground running, taking a hands-on approach by attending Godwin’s editorial meetings and turning up on set at various shows over the past two weeks.