Fox Business host Charles Payne on Wednesday said that he thinks President Obama may issue reparations for slavery in 2016, which Payne said would be a “mistake.”
Payne mentioned Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s support for a reparations package for torture victims of former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge. Payne said that this news suggested that the White House may also push for reparations and apologize for slavery.
“I think there’s going to A. be an official apology from the White House for slavery in America, and then there’s going to be a major push to get cash — and I’m talking lots of cash,” Payne said.
Payne said that General William Sherman’s reparations plan in 1865, which was then overturned, has “been seen as a promise by the federal government that’s never been fulfilled.”
“I actually think it would be a major mistake. Instead, President Obama should discuss and focus on all the progress that we’ve made and how all Americans need to move forward for better days for all of our kids,” Payne said.
The Tea Party News Network’s Scottie Hughes, a guest on “Making Money with Charles Payne,” agreed that reparations would be a mistake.
“Sure, slavery was a horrible thing that happened, but this is not going to help race relations in the United States today,” she said.
Payne said reparations “will set us backwards.”
Watch the clip via Media Matters:
