Report: Breitbart, Trump Campaign Pushed Bernie Sanders Activist to Tell Black Voters to Stay Home

A former Bernie Sanders activist was “recruited” by Breitbart to turn out the black vote for Donald Trump, and told Bloomberg News that he would tell people to not bother voting if they couldn’t “stomach Trump.” Bruce Carter, founder of Black Men for Bernie, said he started Trump for Urban Communities after being disillusioned by the Democratic National Committee’s treatment of the Vermont senator. Breitbart staffer Dustin Stockton then started to court him to hit the trail for Trump, and promised access to Steve Bannon. Carter was soon connected to Bannon, who was just named Breitbart executive chairman, and Karen Giorno, senior Trump campaign adviser—who all strategized that Florida, Philadelphia, and North Carolina were going to be the “three initial markets” to target, and said Bannon connected him with a pro-Trump fundraiser in Texas. Stockton told Bloomberg News that Trump “vastly outperformed the projection models in the 12 areas Bruce was targeting” in those areas. “I never like telling people not to vote. But from a tactical and strategic position, we looked at it: If you could get them to vote for Trump, that was a plus two.” It was a “plus one,” Stockton said, if they simply didn’t vote at all. Bannon declined to comment.