The co-founder of Death Row Records, one of the most recognizable and influential record labels in the music industry, spoke to Fox News Digital about why he recently decided to endorse former President Trump over VP Kamala Harris.
"It's about his track record," Michael "Harry-O" Harris told Fox News Digital about his decision to endorse Trump, who granted Harris clemency from a 33-year prison sentence that had seven years remaining on it as one of his last actions as president.
"The former president, while president, enacted some initiatives that speaks to my community specifically and other people as well."
Harris cited several examples of policies from the first Trump administration that he feels are in line with the goals of his organization, Community First Action, including permanent funding for HBCUs, opportunity zones promoting investment in low income neighborhoods, the First Step Act, and bipartisan legislation combating sickle cell anemia.
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Polls have increasingly shown that Trump has made significant inroads with the Black community and is expected by many to earn a historically strong share of those votes in November. Harris told Fox News Digital he believes it is due in part to voters trusting that Trump will keep his word, and a lack of movement from the Biden-Harris administration.
"People have more confidence that he will keep his word and I think it's kind of based on some of the same research that we did, that when somebody doesn't campaign on something but actually enacted laws . . . that wants to double down on what he did in the first administration," Harris said.
"I haven't heard that from the other side as much. I mean, what I've heard, I believe, frankly, came a little bit too late, too little, too late. And so, when it comes to a balancing act, and you have to make a decision, the critical decision that could affect your life and the life of your family, you have to go based on facts, and the facts are that for the last three and a half years, the previous, the present administration hasn't really focused on our community."
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Harris told Fox News Digital that "there’s nothing to refer to of substance" that the Biden-Harris administration has done to "help elevate our community."
"But even with that said, I still put the challenge out to both candidates and President Trump tapped in and that support meant a lot to our organization but more importantly to our community that somebody is committing to working with us to deal with real issues in the community."
Fox News Digital asked Harris what his theory is as to why VP Harris has struggled to earn the support of Black voters the way that President Biden did, according to polling.
"I think that, people at large, I just want to be honest here. Don't understand the intelligence of the black community," Harris responded. "I think that they put them in a box and just think that everybody suffers from the herd mentality, that just because certain parts of our community say we should do this, then everybody should do it."
"I'm not saying that some people don't fall into that bracket, but a lot of people go back to reality. They have to go back to reality, because they are living in reality that their groceries is triple or double the gas is double or triple that just to be able to rent or pay their mortgage is double. Things have changed for them in a dramatic way in the last four years."
Harris continued, "So when somebody starts saying vote for me just because is insulting, and I think that that's what the fallback is that somebody is going to vote for you for a double up of what they just had. I think people are too intelligent for that."
Harris also spoke about his "life-changing" experience of being pardoned by Trump after spending decades in prison on drug trafficking charges.
"I'd been gone for 33 years and President Trump decided to make a difference and what some people don't know, I had put in a request for clemency twice under President Obama's administration and never heard anything back and the fact that President Trump on his way out was able to provide that relief to me and others, I can't even put words around it," Harris said. "It changed everything for me. It changed everything for my family. It gave me an opportunity to re-engage in society and try to do my part. To make it a better place."
Harris explained that he had met with Trump for about an hour after being released from prison and shed some light on what that conversation looked like.
"We just sat and talked about issues and about family, and I remember me asking him, you know, because I'm so grateful, you know? What can I do for you? He said you don't owe me nothing, the only thing you owe me to be honest with you is to be successful," Harris said. "I read your file. I saw what you had done while you was away, and it was commendable, and I just didn't think that you should do another day in prison."
Earlier this month, Harris released the "O-Plan" as a "challenge for anyone seeking to be President of the United States of America to commit to the following policy proposals to end fleeting promises of hope and change."
Those proposals include promoting economic self-sufficiency to end the vicious cycle of generational debt, incentivizing responsible homeownership through the expansion of "rent to own" programs, and developing a comprehensive and targeted economic empowerment program that fosters financial literacy, career development, and entrepreneurship education.
Shortly after that announcement, Trump posted on Truth Social: "Michael Harris (Harry O) is working hard to support and build on what my administration did for Black Americans in the first term. Good luck to Michael and the Community First team. Working together, we will Make America Great Again for everyone!"
