Trump says Democrats have ‘betrayed’ African-Americans

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump made a pitch to AfricanAmerican voters on Tuesday, saying Democrats had ‘betrayed’ them and pledged he would revitalise impoverished urban communities.

His comments at a rally in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin came as something of a surprise from the Republican candidate who until now has done little to endear himself to minorities.

With polls showing the bombastic billionaire trailing his White House opponent Hillary Clinton overall and in battleground states, it appeared Trump was trying to expand his support base beyond his core of working- class white voters.

“I’m asking for the vote of every African- American citizen struggling in our country today who wants a different and much better future. It’s time for our society to address some honest and very, very difficult truths.

“The Democratic Party has failed and betrayed the AfricanAmerican community.”

Black Americans tend to vote Democratic and Clinton has a solid lead among the demographic.

But Trump said Democrats have “taken the votes of AfricanAmericans for granted. They just assume they’ll get your support and done nothing in return for it,” he said.

“It’s time to rebuild the inner cities of America and to reject the failed leadership of a rigged political system.”

Trump was speaking in West Bend following a spasm of racially charged violence over the weekend in Wisconsin’s largest city of Milwaukee after police there shot dead a black man.

Officials said the 23-year- old man was armed, but the death angered residents, as it echoes a series of deadly police incidents in the US involving mainly African American suspects. — AFP