Wednesday August 17, 2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in West Bend, Wis., Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appealed to African-Americans on Tuesday, saying his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton talks down to minorities and sees the black community only as votes.
"We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton," Trump told supporters in the northern state of Wisconsin.
Trump said the Democratic Party as a whole has taken for granted African-Americans, who have largely supported Democrats in recent elections including overwhelmingly voting for President Barack Obama. He blamed Democratic policies for creating "more crimes, more broken homes and more poverty."
But Trump faces a big challenge in actually getting those votes. Polls from this month show his support among registered African-American voters is in the single digits. A Los Angeles Times poll had Clinton beating him among black voters by a margin of 89 percent to 5 percent.
Trump also cast Clinton as being against the country's police officers, saying the "war on our police must end."
“The problem in our poorest communities is not that there are too many police, the problem is that there are not enough police. More law enforcement, more community engagement, more effective policing is what our country needs desperately.”
The businessman is expected to get his first official national security briefing Wednesday in New York. The briefings ensure that the new president is informed when they take office in January.
Some people are concerned that Trump's spontaneous speaking style could result in the revealing of classified information from briefings.
"If they want to be president, they've got to start acting like a president," Obama said last week. "And that means being able to receive these briefings and not spread them around."Trump's national security plans include what he calls "extreme vetting" of would-be immigrants to the United States to ensure they respect the U.S. constitution, the American people and their values. He said Tuesday the U.S. should only invite people who support tolerant values, support the Constitution and love the country's people.
Some analysts said his comments are nothing but a repackaging of his earlier stated desires to restrict Muslim immigration.
He has also pledged to wipe out Islamic State, but has not given specific about the plan and blames Obama and Clinton for allowing the militant group to flourish.
"It just absolutely bewilders me when I hear Donald Trump try to talk about national security," Clinton said while campaigning in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
She later tweeted, "It's not just that Trump doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to national security. His words are dangerous and they hurt us."
But Clinton did not say exactly what it was that Trump said to which she objects. She instead urged the crowd to register to vote and not be complacent, even though she leads in most polls and experts predict a big win for the Democrat in November's general election.
"I'm not taking anyone for granted," Clinton said.