Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Trump attends predominantly black church, says he’ll fix wrongs
DETROIT — Donald Trump swayed to songs of worship, read Scripture and donned a Jewish prayer shawl Saturday during a visit to a predominantly black church in Detroit, where he called for a “civil-rights agenda of our time” and vowed to fix the “many wrongs” facing blacks.
“I am here to listen to you,” Trump told the congregation at the Great Faith Ministries International. “I’m here today to learn.”
The Trump campaign, meanwhile, insisted that it was capable of overcoming Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign resources and continued to talk up the FBI’s release last week of notes regarding Clinton’s contentious email practices while she was secretary of state.
Trump has stepped up his outreach to minority-group voters in recent weeks as he tries to expand his appeal beyond his GOP base. The Saturday visit was Trump’s first to a predominantly black church and marked a rare appearance in front of a largely minority-group audience for the candidate who typically attracts overwhelmingly white crowds.
Trump was introduced by Bishop Wayne Jackson, who warned Trump that he was in for something different.
“This is the first African-American church he’s been in, y’all! Now, it’s a little different from a Presbyterian church,” he said.
While protesters were a vocal presence outside, Trump made a pitch inside for support from an electorate strongly aligned with Clinton.
“Our nation is too divided,” Trump said. “We talk past each other, not to each other. And those who seek office do not do enough to step into the community and learn what is going on.”
Known for making contentious remarks, sometimes involving minority groups, Trump said, “I’m here today to learn, so that we can together remedy injustice in any form.”
Trump praised the black church as “the conscience of our country” and said the nation needs “a civil-rights agenda of our time” that includes the right to a quality education, safe neighborhoods and good jobs.
“I fully understand that the African-American community has suffered from discrimination and that there are many wrongs that must still be made right,” Trump said.
Before he left, he was presented with a prayer shawl, which Jackson draped over Trump’s shoulders, and a Jewish Heritage Studies bible. Trump also met with a smaller group of church members and recorded an interview with the pastor.
Trump’s efforts thus far to attract greater support from minority groups have largely fallen flat. Polls show Clinton with overwhelmingly more support from blacks and Hispanics. Black community leaders, in particular, have railed against Trump’s dire depictions of minorities and their lives, and dismissed his message as intended more to reassure white voters that he’s not racially biased than to help minority communities.
Outside the church, several separate protests swelled to about 400 people denouncing Trump. At one point, the protesters tried to push through a barrier to the parking lot but were stopped by church security officers and police.
The Rev. Lawrence Glass, one of the clergymen denouncing Trump’s visit, said Trump represents the “politics of fear and hate,” and “minorities of all kinds have much to lose taking a chance on someone like” Trump.
Emery Northington, 42, who works in auto sales, said Trump “doesn’t have my best interest in hand.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan issued a statement saying “Mr. Trump ran a campaign through the nomination process of bigotry.”
But inside, churchgoers who chose to attend Trump’s speech said they thought it was important to hear directly from the Republican nominee as they weigh their options ahead of the fall election.
“I’m here to hear what he has to say,” said Milton Lewis, 46, who works as a minister at another church.
“I have a very open mind,” echoed Pierre Curtis, 69, a Great Faith Ministries International congregation member for more than 20 years.
After the church visit, Trump made a brief stop at the southwest Detroit childhood home of Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who ran against Trump in the GOP primaries and is now advising Trump’s campaign.
Surrounded by security officers and a swarm of reporters, Trump spoke briefly with the home’s current owner, Felicia Reese.
“Your house is worth a lot of money,” he told her, referring to the Carson connection.
Carson told The Associated Press before the trip that it would serve as an opportunity for Trump to see the challenges residents face as he refines his policy plans.
“It always makes much more of an impression, I think, when you see things firsthand,” Carson said.
Detroit is about 80 percent black, and many people there are struggling. Nearly 40 percent of residents are impoverished, compared with about 15 percent of Americans overall. Detroit’s median household income is just over $26,000 — not even half the median for the nation, according to the census.
In the past, Trump’s efforts to court blacks have ignited anger, especially because of the bleak portrait of black life in America — desperately poor and violent — that he has presented.
“You live in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?” Trump said at a recent rally.
Tristin Wilkerson, co-founder of Black and Brown People Vote, a nonpartisan political activism project, said Trump’s appeals to minority voters is “just a step from mockery.”
“Even if a candidate like Donald Trump was telling the truth about the conditions in some impoverished communities of color, it’s hard to receive it because he has been so flat-out disrespectful and inconsiderate of African-Americans and people of color and their contributions to this country,” Wilkerson said. “The truth falls on deaf ears when you lack integrity.”
Meanwhile, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, went virtually unnoticed during a stop at Ohio State University on the opening day of football season.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet The Press on Saturday, Pence said he plans to release his tax returns this week, and said Trump’s long-awaited tax returns are also coming. He echoed Trump’s promise that he will release his taxes upon the completion of an ongoing audit.
CLINTON CAMPAIGN
Two months from Election Day, Clinton, in most traditional measures of success in presidential races, has a clear edge over Trump.
Clinton’s campaign is raising large sums of money and flooding airwaves with television advertisements. A data team with a history of winning White House contests is meticulously tracking voters in key battleground states. Clinton also has multiple paths to the 270 electoral votes needed to win in November — so many that she could lose Ohio and Florida, and still become the United States’ first female president.
On the other hand, Trump’s campaign has spent no general election money on positive, biographical ads, despite having plenty of cash to do so. Efforts to highlight a warmer side of the New York real estate developer at the GOP National Convention were quickly overshadowed by flaps of his own making. He has also angered anew Hispanics voters, a fast-growing segment of the electorate that Republicans are desperate to draw from, by holding fast to his tough immigration policies.
“He’s running up against a population trend and a demographic reality,” said Steve Schale, a Florida-based Democratic strategist.
But Trump’s aides said they believe there are pockets of voters eager to be persuaded not to back Clinton, and the campaign received a boost after last week’s release of FBI notes on Clinton’s email practices. The Trump campaign has said it plans to come out of the Labor Day weekend wielding the FBI report as a warning about Clinton’s judgment.
“There’s a renewed focus on Hillary Clinton and her problems, which I think has been beneficial,” said Matt Borges, the chairman of Ohio’s Republican Party. “He’s got to sustain this for another couple weeks.”
And Trump advisers vigorously dispute that the race has slipped from their grasp. They contend that most Americans are just now tuning into the presidential campaign in a serious way.
“We’re very much on schedule to do what we need to do to turn out the vote for Mr. Trump,” said Bob Paduchik, Trump’s Ohio state director. Paduchik said Trump’s efforts heading into the fall are focused primarily on rallying “disaffected Democrats and independents.”
Separately, the leading third-party candidates for president — Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein — will appear on the New Hampshire ballot in November.
Both have submitted the necessary 3,000 signatures to be listed on the ballot as presidential candidates. Stein’s supporters delivered stacks of paperwork to the secretary of state’s office Friday; Johnson had already qualified for the ballot. Election Day is Nov. 8.
Stein and Johnson saw little success in their 2012 bids, with Johnson winning 1.3 million votes and Stein less than half a million. But both are hoping to capitalize on the electorate’s negative feelings toward Trump and Clinton to energize new supporters.