United States presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump clashed yesterday over who would make a better president for the country’s minorities, with each accusing the other of posing a threat to the interests of blacks and Latinos.
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Clinton also ripped Trump’s hiring of Breitbart Chairman Steve Bannon, which she said is further proof of Trump’s embrace of the so-called “alt-right” movement, a loosely connected faction that has been accused of being racist and white nationalist. Bannon told the magazine Mother Jones during the Republican National Convention last month that the website was “the platform for the alt-right”, a brand of United States political conservatism associated with white nationalism.
Mr Trump said revelations that scores of donors to the Clinton family foundation met with her as Secretary of State represents “one of the most shocking scandals in American political history”. “If he doesn’t respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?”
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway released a statement of her own after the conclusion of the real-estate magnate’s Twitter rant.
“Hillary Clinton is using race-baiting to try to get African-American voters- but they know she is all talk and NO ACTION!”
Clinton singled out “every Republican dismayed that the party of Lincoln has become the party of Trump”, praising former Republican nominees for president Bob Dole, George W. Bush, and John McCain for disavowing pockets of racism among their supporters. You’re racist. You’re racist.
Trump, meanwhile, on Thursday continued a week-long appeal to minority voters by summoning black and Latino activists to Trump Tower in Manhattan and talking about ways to boost his low-standing in their communities.
Trump tweeted Friday: “How quickly people forget that Crooked Hillary called African-American youth “SUPER PREDATORS” – Has she apologized?”
The Democratic presidential nominee, in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, defended the Clinton Foundation, saying the charitable work it has conducted has changed lives for the better and is in keeping with American values.
To the nearly entirely African-American crowd at the historically black Florida A&M University, Kaine also talked about the importance of historically black colleges and how he and Clinton plan to keep funding the schools in their education plan.
Clinton’s passages were heard by Trump, and he immediately rejected these allegations.
Trump has been heavily criticised by minorities for his proposals on immigration, which include deporting millions of undocumented foreigners, building a wall along the Mexican border, and suspending Muslim immigration to shore up national security.
The businessman, who is trailing in the polls three months before election day, said earlier she was accusing his supporters “of being racists, which we’re not”.
“We need that kind of leadership again”, she said. In that speech, she accused Trump of unleashing a “radical fringe” within the Republican Party, including anti-Semites and white supremacists.
And “people who support the police.are not prejudiced”, Trump said.
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Speaking at a community college, Clinton sought to link Trump to the “alt-right”, an informal group of mostly white conservative men aligned with the Republican Party that sees Trump as the only choice in 2016.
