Herman Cain on Friday defended recently stating that fellow blacks have been “brainwashed” by the media to hate President Trump.

Mr. Cain, the president’s former nominee to serve on the Federal Reserve, doubled down on his assertion during a television interview aired on Fox Business.

“Many of them only look at the liberal stations, which we know report 92% negative news about President Trump and his administration,” he said. “ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, they all do. Therefore, 50% of the African-Americans have been brainwashed by those negative messages.

“On the other hand, I meet a lot of Black people and African-Americans who are not brainwashed by the perception but understand the facts that what this president is doing is helping all people, including Blacks and Hispanics and other groups,” Mr. Cain said. “And so they have been brainwashed to believe in Trump-hate, and I happen to believe that there are a lot of people who are swing voters who are not buying the perception,” he added.

Mr. Cain, a former pizza tycoon who unsuccessfully sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, had been considered for a seat on the board of the central bank prior to withdrawing his bid last month in the face of resistance from fellow Republicans opposed to his nomination.

Pressed earlier in the week about the lack of support for Mr. Trump among blacks, Mr. Cain said it was “because they’re getting brainwashed according to the news that the watch.”

“It’s been statistically shown that certain stations, certain news outlets, they simply are not telling the entire truth,” Mr. Cain said Tuesday. “And in some cases, people are being brainwashed.”

About eight percent of black voters cast ballots for Mr. Trump in 2016, and polling from March placed the president’s approval among blacks at 12 percent.

Appearing on Fox Business, Mr. Cain predicted Friday that Mr. Trump will win over a fifth of the nation’s black voters in 2020.

“I believe that he’s going to probably hit about 20%. And that would be monumental for a presidential candidate who happens to be Republican,” Mr. Cain said.

“The reason that I feel that is because of the feedback that I get from people that I see every day, I see when I travel, they are secretly moving more toward the policies that this president and his administration are promoting and passing, and they are just not talking about it. Why? Because brainwashing and intimidation,” he added.