GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump ended up having a press conference after all following his meeting Monday in Trump Tower with more than 100 black pastors.
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Earlier today, Donald Trump met with “over a hundred” black pastors in a private meeting after it came out that Trump was (falsely) framing the event as a public endorsement.
But Trump was endorsed by some members of the group, including the Rev. Darrell Scott of the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Pastor Steve Parson, a Richmond-area minister in Virginia.
By Monday afternoon, the supposed declaration of support from a cross-section of African-Americans seemed to crumble as several pastors insisted they had never agreed to attend or back Trump.
Flanked by black religious leaders supporting his candidacy, Trump claimed there were more than 100 people in the two-and-a-half hour meeting, and that he expected “many, many endorsements” to come.
“The meeting was presented not as a meeting to endorse but a meeting to engage in dialogue”, he said on Facebook. He continues to say he plans to win the crucial demographic, even as he does little to court such voters on the issues-and on occasion goes out of his way to alienate them.
We will find out tomorrow at 1 PM ET if any black religious leaders show up to endorse Donald Trump. But it was such a good meeting, we thought we would do that, and we had many, many endorsements coming out of the meeting.
Trump predicted some of the 100 black evangelical leaders would endorse him after the meeting, nonetheless.
Trump flew to Georgia after meeting with dozens of black pastors in his Manhattan offices.
“I think what happened probably is it gets publicity, unfortunately … everything I do gets publicity, and probably some of the Black Lives Matter folks called them up and said ‘Oh you shouldn’t be meeting with Trump because he believes that all lives matter.'” Trump said on MSNBC.
Bryant said, “I want to apologize, because prostitutes get money”.
Orrin Pullings Sr., a Richmond, Virginia, pastor, before the meeting said he was going in with an open mind.
Trump, 69, also stood by his comments about Muslims cheering on 9/11 in New Jersey, insisting this morning he saw the footage, and did not confuse it with scenes of celebrations from the West Bank. Some of them said they were surprised that his campaign billed the meeting as a major endorsement. He added that the Black Lives Matter movement shouldn’t criticize African-American clergy who seek out answers. I don’t think it’s right. “We, as spiritual leaders, we represent a constituency of black people who look to us for leadership, and one thing that we must be is we must be full of integrity”.
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Some specific foibles of Trump recently include an African American protester at a Trump rally in Alabama being beaten and kicked by Trump supporters.
