An black man who was singled out by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump during a campaign rally last week said he wasn’t offended by the incident.
“That was me, seriously. I got two autographs out of that,” said Gregory Cheadle, a Republican from Happy Valley, Calif., who is running for the House in California’s 1st Congressional District, according to USA Today.
{mosads}During a rally last week in California, Trump pointed out a black audience member and said: “Look at my African-American over here.”
“Are you the greatest? You know what I’m talking about,” he said during the rally.
Trump then talked about an African-American man who attended his rally earlier this year and punched a man dressed in a Ku Klux Klan hood.
“He slugged this guy wearing the Ku Klux Klan outfit,” Trump said during the campaign event.
“Everybody thought the African-American was against me. And it was the opposite. … We have tremendous African-American support. The reason is, I’m going to bring jobs back to our country.”
Cheadle, who was close to the front row at the Trump rally last week, said he was glad Trump had acknowledged him.
“To give the black folk the time of the day, I was happy,” Cheadle said.
Cheadle said he spoke with the presumptive GOP nominee following the rally.
“I was at the point he was about to leave and I called out, ‘Uncle Donald, Uncle Donald,'” Cheadle said.
“He recognized me as the guy he had called out.”
“You know what I was talking about? Jobs, jobs, jobs,” Cheadle said Trump told him.
“I said, ‘Yeah, jobs.’ It’s all a fog. I’m glad I’m not on the witness stand. But it means a lot to me when a person of his stature can come to Redding.”