But Trump pressed forward Friday with his portrayal of Obama as a president who is treated with less respect than his predecessors, saying leaders of Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China had failed to greet him properly on trips overseas.
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Speaking at the annual dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington, Obama stressed the importance of going to the polls to vote for a new president in November. They cheered enthusiastically as Trump faulted Obama for the thaw in US relations with Cuba.
On Trump’s quest to win over African-American voters, Obama quipped: “Well, we do have challenges, but we’re not stupid”.
Obama also is expected to respond directly to Trump’s “birther” admission Friday – he publicly acknowledged for the first time that Obama was born in the U.S. – but will likely do so in a “lighthearted” way, the official said.
It’s ‘absolute nonsense, ‘ Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said, that anyone could interpret Donald Trump’s comments about disarming Hillary Clinton’s Secret Service detail as a call to violence. “We will educate him”. “I am inspired”, she said, urging the crowd to register to vote and actually cast ballots for Clinton.
Mr. Trump on Friday admitted that Mr. Obama was born in the US, but said the controversy arose because of the actions of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in 2008.
The two vice presidential nominees jousted over what Trump had meant in separate Sunday show interviews.
Chuckling, the President said, “I mean: ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change – none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate”.
Clinton gave a shorter address. “It comes down to who will fight for the forgotten, who will invest in our children and who will really have your back in the White House”, Clinton said.
“We need ideas not insults, real plans to help struggling Americans in communities that have been left out and left behind, not prejudice and paranoia”.
“Let’s see how they feel walking around without their guns and their bodyguards”, Trump said in that speech. The President made his first solo appeal this week, appearing at a campaign rally in Philadelphia and phoning in to African-American radio to talk up Clinton.
Black voters were among Clinton’s most loyal supporters during the Democratic primaries, powering her to a series of wins in the South that helped her build a delegate lead against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
The dinner included warnings about a Trump presidency. Trump has long supported the birther theory, raising questions about Obama’s birthplace and demanding that the president present his birth certificate as proof of his origin.
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After years of Trump pushing the “birther” conspiracy theory, the Republican nominee reversed his position on Friday, telling reporters, “President Obama was born in the United States, period”. “He owed the public an apology, and somebody should ask him, did you believe it … or were you just trying to cynically play to the darkest emotions in American life?”
