Trump, Clinton spar over racism
Donald MANCHESTER, N.H. — Trump on Thursday confronted allegations that he is racist, defending his hardline approach to immigration while trying to make the case to minority voters that Democrats have abandoned them.
His opponent, Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, contended in a speech that Trump had unleashed the “radical fringe” within the Republican Party, including anti-Semites and white supremacists, saying the billionaire businessman’s campaign will “make America hate again.”
The accusations come as the two candidates vie for the support of minorities and undecided voters with less than three months until Election Day.
Weeks before the first early voting, Trump faces the urgent task of revamping his image to win over those skeptical of his candidacy.
In a tweet shortly after Clinton wrapped up her speech in the swing state of Nevada, Trump said she “is pandering to the worst instincts in our society. She should be ashamed of herself!”
Clinton is eager to capitalize on Trump’s slipping poll numbers, particularly among moderate Republican women turned off by his controversial campaign. “Don’t be fooled” by Trump’s efforts to rebrand, she told voters in Reno, Nev., saying the country faces a “moment of reckoning.”
“He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over one of America’s two major political parties,” she said.
Trump tried to get ahead of the Democratic nominee, addressing a crowd in Manchester, N.H., just minutes before Clinton spoke.
“Hillary Clinton is going to try to accuse this campaign, and the millions of decent Americans who support this campaign, of being racists,” Trump said. “To Hillary Clinton, and to her donors and advisers, pushing her to spread her smears and her lies about decent people, I have three words. I want you to hear these words, and remember these words: Shame on you.”
Clinton did not address Trump’s accusations in her remarks. Instead, she offered a strident denouncement of his campaign, charging him with fostering hate and pushing discriminatory policies, like his proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
At rallies over the past week, the Republican presidential nominee cast Democratic policies as harmful to communities of color, and in Mississippi on Wednesday he went so far as to label Clinton “a bigot.”
“They’ve been very disrespectful, as far as I’m concerned, to the African-American population in this country,” Trump said.
Many black leaders and voters have dismissed Trump’s message — delivered to predominantly white rally audiences — as condescending, saying his goal is to reassure undecided white voters that he’s not racist rather than to actually help minority communities.
Cornell William Brooks, president of the NAACP, told C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” Thursday that Trump has not reached out to the organization for any reason.
He added that Trump refused the group’s invitation to speak at its annual convention earlier this year.
“We’re going to make it clear: You don’t get to the White House unless you travel through the doors of the NAACP,” Brooks said.