Former pro football player and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron won over the Republican Party on Tuesday when he pushed back against the Democratic narrative that Black Americans need to vote Democratic.
Cameron serves as the first Black attorney general for Kentucky and gained national attention for his part in the investigation to the death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, which has played its part in recent social unrest.
“I think often about my ancestors who struggled for freedom, and as I think of those giants and their broad shoulders,” Cameron said during his Republican National Convention address. “I also think about Joe Biden, who says, ‘If you are not voting for me, you ain’t black,’” Cameron said, paraphrasing a comment the former vice president made in May.
The state attorney general also accused Biden of saying “there is no diversity of thought in the Black community,” a reference to Biden’s comments from earlier this month that the Latino community in the United States was diverse, “unlike the African American community with notable exceptions.”
In another controversial statement, Biden said in 2012 that he believed that then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney “would put us back in chains,” Cameron said.
“Mr. Vice President, look at me,” Cameron said Tuesday. “I am Black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains. My mind is my own. And you can’t tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin.”
Tuesday’s RNC speaker went on to admonish his fellow Americans who have taken to the streets in rage over what they consider to be unfair treatment of their fellow Black Americans, saying that Republicans are the peacemakers.
“Even as anarchists mindlessly tear up American cities while attacking police and innocent bystanders, we Republicans do recognize those who work in good faith towards peace, justice, and equality,” he said. “In fact, it was Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, a future Republican president, who said democracy is a system that recognizes the equality of humans before the law.”
Cameron addressed the deaths of Black Americans head-on, referencing both Taylor and of David Dorn, a retired police captain killed while responding to an alarm during looting in St. Louis in June.
“Whether you are the family of Breonna Taylor or David Dorn, these are the ideals that will heal our nation’s wounds,” Cameron continued. “Republicans will never turn a blind eye to unjust acts, but neither will we accept an all-out assault on Western civilization.”
Republicans lauded Cameron’s address, congratulating the high profile public servant. Fox News’ Shannon Bream interviewed him after his address where he further touched on the issues he considers Republicans to be the strongest in.
“One of the things I noted in the speech this evening is Republicans recognize those who fight in earnest for justice, equality and peace, that’s a foundation or tenet of the Republican Party, always has been since its founding,” Cameron told Bream.
According to Cameron, some Americans are worried about Trump and Republicans, however, according to his account of events, it’s Republicans who “stand ready to make sure we have law and order across the country while also recognizing the responsibility for justice, equality, and peace.”
According to Fox News, the Kentucky AG also beat the same drum that fellow Black conservatives have been installing in the minds of others, which is that people don’t have to vote based solely on the color of their skin.
“We are the only group of individuals that are told we have to subscribe to one party, and that’s the Democratic Party,” Cameron said. “I’m here to say enough is enough, and I know that there are millions of African Americans that look just like me that aren’t in chains and have minds of their own to articulate their views and their values.”
