Gregory Cheadle, the black man singled out by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during a rally in Redding on Friday, said he took no offense when the billionaire urged the crowd to "Look at my African-American over here."
"I was not offended by it because he had been speaking positively about black people prior to that statement," Cheadle told NPR when reached at his home for comment over the weekend. "People around me were laughing [at the fact] that he noticed me and everybody was happy. It was a jovial thing."
Trump's use of the possessive "my" touched off a fresh wave of criticism of the candidate with some saying it came across as racist or at the very least tone deaf.
The remarks came as the real estate mogul interrupted his own meandering remarks to recall an incident from a March rally in Arizona, where a black Trump supporter assaulted a protester being escorted out of the venue by police.
In an attempt to show he, as Trump put it enjoys "tremendous African-American support," the candidate said the black man from the Arizona rally was a "great fan" of his. The businessman added that his supporter "cold-cocked" the protester who Trump said was wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit. The black supporter, who was also escorted from the venue by police, was, according to Trump, initially portrayed by some as being anti-Trump. Presumably just because he was African-American.