The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump, Clinton spar over racism, radical right
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Donald Trump on Thursday confronted allegations that he is racist, defending his hard-line 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.”
He suggested she was trying to distract from questions about donations to the Clinton Foundation by people who met with her when she was secretary of state and her use of a private email server while engaging in sensitive State Department communications.
“She lies, she smears, she paints decent Americans as racists,” said Trump.
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.
Her speech focused on the so-called alt-right movement, which is often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve “white identity,” oppose multiculturalism and defend what it calls “Western values.” Discussions about the alt-right movement became the subject of a Twitter war Thursday, with people on both sides of the debate tweeting under the hashtag #altrightmeans.
“#altrightmeans we don’t want to kill you we just want you to go away,” tweeted one person.
“#altrightmeans white supremacy. That’s all Alt Right is. Another code word for white supremacy. Nothing more nothing less,” another tweet said.
Clinton’s campaign also released an online video that compiles footage of prominent white supremacist leaders praising Trump, who has been criticized for failing to immediately denounce the support he’s garnered from figures including former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
Trump, who also met Thursday in New York with members of a new Republican Party initiative meant to train young — and largely minority — volunteers, has been working to win over blacks and Latinos in light of his past inflammatory comments and has been claiming that the Democrats have taken minority voters’ support for granted. 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.
Before the meeting in New York, several protesters unfurled a banner over a railing in the lobby of Trump Tower that read, “Trump = Always Racist.” They were quickly escorted out by security as they railed against Trump for “trying to pander to black and Latino leaders.”