Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive October 12, 2026
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Back to episode — Episode 547 Scott Adams - How to Win on Social Media for 2020

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citizens wanted him to be elected? And of course other people did too but I think that was the deciding part. And likewise with this upcoming election. If black voters decided that they just couldn't vote for Trump, you would have a lot of trouble getting reelected. If they decide that some of them want to vote for him, he'll probably get elected. So I would say it's kind of down to the black vot…

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the lines of you know you keep saying this and this is why you're wrong. Yes they put words in my mouth. You can't fix that. The people who say but what you're really thinking, you can't fix that.

All right, here's a little lesson on persuasion that I'd like to try out because you might need to use this one. I started on this point and I'm circling back to it. So the Washington Post, I guess there might have been their Washington bureau chief, doesn't matter who it was, he tweeted that the president is going to have problems criticizing Biden for his 1994 crime bill because the president quote has his own problems with the Central Park Five situation which was also a long time ago.

Now here's the thing. The Central Park Five thing, President Trump did a full-page ad in which he was complaining about crime and said maybe we should have the death penalty for these horrible crimes. He did not mention race although there was obviously the context was that the five African American gentlemen who had been arrested and later were acquitted or released, I forget what, but that they were found not guilty. He believed they were guilty but their race was never part of the conversation. Trump never mentioned race. He mentioned crime. We have seen quite clearly that he talks about crime as crime. And when it came to for example the prison reform bill, President Trump did not say oh we can't do that because it's good for black people. You know he went ahead and did it because it's good for people.

So when the Washington Post said he's got this problem because of this Central Park Five situation decades ago, here's the right response and it's the one that I gave. I said that the Washington Post has equated crime and black people and they need to explain that because that's what happened. I'm not making that up. President Trump talked about crime. That's it. He talked about crime and the death penalty. If other people say that's about race you can't make that argument unless you are introducing into the conversation that crime and black people are equated. That is racist. Criticizing the president for making a stand about crime without mentioning race and then going in and saying hey this is some kind of racist anti-black people, the only way you can make that criticism is if you yourself are a racist who has decided that crime and black people are somehow paired. The president didn't do that. He never did that. He never has done that. And I'm pretty sure he never will because there's no evidence that he thinks that way. He does hate crime. That is as clear as possible. There's no doubt anyplace in my mind that he's anti-crime. Like seriously, seriously anti-crime. And he can still do a crime bill because it made sense and it was good for the country.

Somebody's saying I don't agree with you on all issues but this point is the reason I follow you. Thank you. So if you're in the situation and I know you will be between now and 2020, somebody's going to bring up the Central Park Five. Your response to it should be Trump never mentioned race. That's all you should say about Trump. The rest of what you should say is about the fricking jerk

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who is trying to equate black people and crime. Which bothers me honestly. Like I'm not saying this as some clever little thing. You know persuasion wise it is persuasion and I am teaching you to do that but it fricking bothers me. It bothers me that the racists are accusing somebody who is not that way of being a racist. It's like extra bothering. That there's some form of projection going on the…

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