President Trump’s advisory board of Black men is hitting President Obama for saying Black men are making “excuses” to not vote for Vice President Harris this November. Mr. Obama had said Ms. Harris is the best choice for Black communities and families this year, and that Black men would get nothing from Trump in return for their votes. 

“Based on reports I’m getting from campaigns and from communities is that we have not yet had the same kinds of energy and turnout in our neighborhoods and our communities as when I was running. I also wanna say that seems more pronounced with the brothers,” Mr. Obama said, referring to Black men. 

Black Men for Trump, which has been advising the 45th president on issues most important to the Black community, called Mr. Obama’s assessment “insulting.”

“President Obama’s recent call for Black men to support Kamala Harris based solely on her skin color, rather than her policies, is deeply insulting,” the group says. “Black Americans are not a monolith, and we don’t owe our votes to any candidate just because they ‘look like us.’ It’s demeaning to suggest that we can’t evaluate a candidate’s track record — especially when Kamala Harris has done more harm than good to Black communities.”

The advisory board is made up of elected officials, campaign strategists, and conservative influencers. Notable members include former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, former Oklahoma house of representatives speaker T.W. Shannon, Congressman Byron Donalds, and Congressman Wesley Hunt. 

The group says Democrats should no longer be the home of the Black vote, given that the party’s policies have done nothing beyond “promoting family instability, poor schooling, and lack of economic opportunity.” They say that “reducing us to race-based voting blocs perpetuates the worst kind of identity politics.”

“Harris’ record, as Attorney General in California and as Vice President, is filled with policies that disproportionately harmed and imprisoned Black Americans,” the advisory board added. “Yet, we are expected to overlook this simply because of her skin color. Black Americans deserve real, tangible wins rather than pandering racial appeals that ignore leadership and results.”

Mr. Obama said that Black men may have a problem voting for Ms. Harris simply because she is a woman. The vice president — while dominating Trump in the polls among Black men and young voters — is still trailing behind both President Biden’s and Mr. Obama’s win margin among the group. 

“You’re thinking about sitting out?” Mr. Obama said. “You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses. I’ve got a problem with that because part of it … makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

Mr. Obama didn’t just receive criticism from Trump supporters for his remarks — he was lambasted by some of his biggest supporters as well. Nina Turner, who previously served as a state senator in Ohio and was a delegate for Mr. Obama to both the 2008 and 2012 Democratic conventions, said in a Newsweek opinion piece that the former president’s comments made her “jaw hit the floor” and made her “blood boil.”

“I was infuriated to hear these remarks. No other group of voters is talked to like this, as if they are children. But it’s not just the paternalistic tone that had me enraged. It’s the underlying message in his words — that Black men are misogynistic and can’t bring themselves to vote for a woman,” Ms. Turner writes. She says Mr. Obama is setting up Black men as a kind of scapegoat should Ms. Harris lose in November due, in part, to lack of turnout from Black men. 

“If Harris loses, it will not be on Black men or any other group of voters. The fault will lie squarely with the candidate and the party she represents,” Ms. Turner says. “It is her job to appeal to Black men — not to lecture those who aren’t feeling it.