November 1, 2020 – A Detroit Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, who sent former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to federal prison for corruption, said Sunday that the New York Times could have provided better cover for the writer of an anti-Trump screed by putting his name on the piece. 

            After repeated denials, Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged last week that he wrote the 2018 New York Times opinion piece under the moniker “Anonymous” that described Trump as “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.”

Elrick faced hurdles in getting sources to put their names behind comments criticizing the most powerful man in Detroit, he said.

            “When my partner Jim Schaefer and I were writing stories about Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and people were reluctant to come forward, we would tell them we’re selling A1 insurance,” Elrick said.

“And they would say, ‘what’s that?’” he continued. “You say what you have to say on A1 of the Detroit Free Press and somebody comes after you, we’re going to write that story too... that was pretty persuasive to a lot of folks who came forward, including some of the mayor’s bodyguards.”

            Elrick made the comments on the Sunday weekly Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields. Elrick discussed the impact Michigan will have on Tuesday’s presidential election. Trump won the state in 2016 by 11,000 votes, his slimmest margin in the nation.

            The failure of Detroit Black voters to come out to support Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton cost her the presidency, Elrick said. Tuesday’s race pivots again on whether Detroit, which is 80 percent African American, turns out to defeat Trump, he said.