Charles Barkley hammers Democrats for only caring about black voters ‘every four years’

NBA legend Charles Barkley took another shot at Democrats on Friday, arguing the party that enjoys overwhelming support from African Americans largely takes their votes for granted.

The 56-year-old Alabama native and ‘Inside the NBA’ analyst recalled campaigning on behalf of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones in 2017 during a Friday interview with CNN host Michael Smerconish.

Jones went on to become the conservative state’s first Democrat to be elected to the Senate in 25 years.

‘I said “Doug, I’m going to support you. I’m going to try to get every black person in Alabama to vote for you.” And it worked out,’ Barkley told Smerconish on the CNN host’s SiriusXM radio show, according to Mediaite.

Barkley also remembered telling Jones at the time that the Democratic party needs to stop neglecting African Americans.

‘I said, “We need to start holding you Democrats accountable” because they’ve been taking black people’s votes – and they only talk to black people every four years,’ Barkley said. ‘All of these politicians only talk to black people every four years because they want their vote.’

Barkley campaigned for U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Alabama) in 2017, helping Jones become the first Democrat elected to the Senate in the state in 25 years

After Jones won, Barkley said he told the senator that African Americans ‘need to start holding you Democrats accountable’

A picture of Barkley during his playing days with the Philadelphia 76ers

African-American voters have played a central role in the 2020 campaign for both Democrats and Donald Trump.

The president’s rhetoric on racial issues, support from overt racists and white supremacists, and repeated attacks on prominent black figures have stymied his attempts to win greater black approval despite boasting an all-time low unemployment record for black Americans and backing bipartisan criminal justice reform initiatives championed by black leaders.

Some black politicians and media pundits have said Trump himself is a white nationalist or a white supremacist and that all his supporters are racists by default.

Barkley disagrees.

‘I think some of them are… but I don’t think everybody who voted for Trump [is] racist,’ he said.

This isn’t the first time Barkley has gone after Democrats this year.

In July, he attended the Democrat presidential candidate debate at the Fox Theatre in Detroit where he said ‘every black person I know has always voted Democratic’ but all are ‘still poor.’

The former Phoenix Suns power forward said politicians from both parties ‘took black votes for granted’ and that the Democratic party in particular is not doing enough for the poor.