Mexican president fact-checks Trump then disputes him over border wall payment discussion

Donald Trump flew into a nation he has constantly berated during his campaign to meet President Enrique Peña Nieto and said they discussed a wall Trump has vowed to build on the US southern border, but not his demand that Mexico pay for it — an assertion the Mexican president later disputed.

“Who pays for the wall? We didn’t discuss,” Trump had said when asked by a reporter during a news conference following their meeting in Mexico City. “We did discuss the wall. We didn’t discuss payment of the wall. That’ll be for a later date.”

But Peña Nieto later claimed the two had discussed the wall and who would pay for it — and he had “made it clear” to Trump it wouldn’t be Mexico.

“At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall,” Peña Nieto tweeted, after their meeting Wednesday.

He added that his conversation with the Republican nominee then moved on to other topics in a respectful fashion.

Jason Miller, Trump’s senior communications adviser, called the meeting “the first part of the discussion and a relationship builder” between the two men, after Peña Nieto tweeted.
“It was not a negotiation, and that would have been inappropriate. It is unsurprising that they hold two different views on this issue, and we look forward to continuing the conversation,” he said in a statement.

In subsequent interviews in Mexico, Peña Nieto reiterated his version of events. He told CNN affiliate Televisa in an interview late Wednesday some of the positions Trump has taken “are a threat to Mexico.”

He also told the outlet he was very clear with Trump about the subject of a wall at the border and insisted Mexico would not pay for it and he made Trump aware that the people of Mexico had been “very insulted.”

Peña Nieto, speaking alongside Trump during their joint appearance, twice stressed the “responsibility” he has to defend Mexican people around the world and said Trump has made “assertions that regrettably had hurt and have affected Mexicans.”

“The Mexican people have felt hurt by the comments that have been made. But I am sure that his genuine interest is to build a relationship that will give both of our society’s better welfare,” Peña Nieto said.

Trump apparently left his tough deal-making persona at home as he received a presidential-style news conference on foreign soil while on a high-risk trip to Mexico on Wednesday.

The visit appeared to be an attempt to bolster Trump’s credentials as a potential world leader, following searing attacks on his temperament by his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The spur-of-the-moment trip also came hours before Trump was due to deliver a speech in Arizona meant to clarify his murky immigration policy amid signs he is softening his prior promise to deport 11 million undocumented migrants.

Trump’s claim that they didn’t discuss who would pay for the wall — despite his call for Mexico to finance it being a central theme of his campaign and one he frequently uses to fire up his supporters — appeared to be a noteworthy omission from Wednesday’s conversation when he mentioned it at their joint appearance.

The cost is one that Peña Nieto has previously refused to shoulder, just one of many issues where the two men have clashed. Peña Nieto, who has previously compared Trump to Adolf Hitler, greeted him courteously and said he was committed to working with whomever Americans elect as their next president in November.

But turning the tables on Trump, he gave the billionaire an earful on trade, said illegal immigration from Mexico to the US peaked years ago and complained of the torrent of guns that he said crossed the border and worsened Mexico’s drug wars.

Nieto said in an interview late Wednesday that some of the positions Donald Trump has taken “are a threat to Mexico.” He told CNN affiliate Televisa that he made Trump aware that the people of Mexico had been “very insulted” by his comments.

Trump’s backers were left to defend his decision not to mention his demand that Mexico pay for the border wall after the visit. Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio told CNN’s Jake Tapper: “What difference does it make? The wall’s important no matter who pays.”

While Trump’s decision not to raise who would pay for the wall appeared to undercut his deal-making swagger, it could also reassure some wavering Republican voters who dislike Clinton but are not yet convinced Trump possesses the restraint and sobriety required of a US president.

The sight of Trump alongside the Mexican president provided the photo-op that the campaign appears to have banked on despite not knowing how the candidate would be received.

Still, the Clinton campaign came out swinging, accusing Trump of failing to make good on his pledge to make Mexico pay for the wall by not raising the issue.

“Donald Trump has made his outlandish policy of forcing Mexico to pay for his giant wall the centerpiece of his campaign. But at the first opportunity to make good on his offensive campaign promises, Trump choked,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement.

“What we saw today from a man who claims to be the ultimate ‘deal maker’ is that he doesn’t have the courage to advocate for his campaign promises when he’s not in front of a friendly crowd,” Podesta said, before accusing Trump of wanting to build a costly wall at American taxpayers’ expense.

Podesta later added: “It turns out Trump didn’t just choke, he got beat in the room and lied about it.”

Peña Nieto began his remarks alongside Trump by saying the two held a constructive exchange of views even though “we might not agree on everything.”

He then launched into a detailed defense of US-Mexican trade and its benefit to both countries delivered by the North American Free Trade Agreement — a common punching bag for Trump on the campaign trail.

The Mexican leader told Trump that both the US and Mexico had benefited from NAFTA, saying more than six million US jobs rely on exports to Mexico.

“I don’t think that commerce must be considered a zero sum game, so that only one wins and the other one loses,” he said, though added he was prepared to make the two-decades-old deal, which also includes Canada, better for both nations.

Trump was also told by his host that Mexicans deserve everybody’s respect wherever they are, in an apparent reference to the GOP nominee’s harsh rhetoric towards undocumented migrants.

Trump, who listened to his host’s long remarks with a somber look on his face while a woman stood beside him at the podium translating for him, said that Mexicans were “spectacular” people when it was his turn to talk.

But he laid bare disagreements between the two men when he said it was imperative to stop the “tremendous outflow” of jobs from the United States over the southern border, and that NAFTA had benefited Mexico more than the US. And he stood up for America’s right to build a “physical barrier or wall” on its territory to stop illegal immigration and drug traffickers. Trump warned that NAFTA would have to be renegotiated.

Trump’s calls for deporting all undocumented workers, labeling many Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “criminals,” and plan to build a wall along the border — that Mexico would pay for — have earned him withering criticism from Peña Nieto, as well as many independents and moderate Republicans.

But they are central pillars of his campaign, which has galvanized his white working class base behind his White House bid. Those most fervently opposed to immigration have pushed back against the rumored “softening” in his stance that he could articulate on Wednesday night.

Trump, speaking from prepared remarks, was far more measured than in his campaign trail appearances. Though he mostly stuck his positions on renegotiating NAFTA and halting illegal immigration, he was also conciliatory. He referred to illegal immigration from Central America rather than just from Mexico. He said a secure border barrier would benefit both nations. And he spoke of the flight of jobs not from the United States but from also from Mexico and Central America to overseas economies.

It is not unusual for presidential candidates to venture abroad during a campaign. Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney made trips to bolster their foreign policy credentials in 2008 and 2012.

But Trump’s approach — like the rest of his campaign — is highly unorthodox. Presidential candidates do not typically show up in foreign capitals for talks with leaders without intense preparation and highly choreographed game plans. Often, the parameters of a meeting are settled in advance. This trip was announced Tuesday night.

In addition, they usually visit strong allies where they are assured of a warm reception that will make for positive media coverage rather than sitting down with a leader who has compared them to Hitler and has disparaged their policy proposals.

Trump’s style, however, is more impulsive and unpredictable. He had never before met a foreign leader in an official capacity. So his trip represented something of a risk. Even though the meeting with Peña Nieto was private, he has no control over how the Mexican leader will address the public and how his officials will brief journalists about it afterward.

The trip was also unusual for not including his traveling press corps and coming against the advice of US diplomats.

The campaign’s decision to travel to a foreign country — one rife with security risks for a candidate who has stoked tensions with his rhetoric on Mexican immigrants — without reporters following close behind marks an unprecedented moment in the coverage of major party presidential nominees.

In addition, staff at the US Embassy in Mexico advised the Trump campaign against making such a hastily arranged trip, suggesting it would be logistically difficult to organize on such short notice, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

(h/t CNN)

Trump campaign says it is sad “Crooked” Hillary’s campaign resorted to name calling

Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway laced into David Plouffe on Tuesday, days after the former campaign adviser to Barack Obama called the GOP nominee a “psychopath.”

Responding to that comment and Hillary Clinton’s speech tying Trump to white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan last week, Conway had three words on Fox News Radio’s “Kilmeade & Friends”: “Shame on them.”

“I mean, the name-calling has reached a fever pitch and it just tells ya, they got nothin’. They got no game,” Conway told host Brian Kilmeade, suggesting that if Clinton “were really strong on the issues” and if Plouffe “was that proud of his boss Barack Obama’s Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, then he would go out there and he’d talk about that.”

Rather than calling Trump a “psychopath,” a notion against which “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd pushed back Sunday, Conway remarked that Plouffe would have said that Clinton’s opponent “shouldn’t win, because Obamacare’s going so well, everybody’s so happy, United HealthCare and Aetna didn’t just realize billions of dollars in losses and pull out of 40-some exchanges.”

“They can’t. They don’t have the issue set that favors them” and thus they resort to name-calling, Conway said. “And I have to say, look, politics is not a tea party. It’s rough and tumble. We all get that, Brian. But to go out there and do guilt by association and to accuse people of having malice in their heart towards other people with no evidence, and then to do exactly what the American Psychological Association has asked people not to do, which is to, which is to certify somebody as mentally unfit or a psychopath. It’s just beyond the pale, and nobody calls them on it.”

Conway then thanked Kilmeade for calling out the issue, turning her ire to the media’s recent coverage of Trump after he repeatedly proclaimed that Clinton is a “bigot” for her treatment of African-American and Hispanic voters.

“All week long, it’s that Donald Trump referred to Hillary Clinton with one word and everybody, you know, their hair is on fire. Donald Trump is called every name in the book plus, before he gets out of bed in the morning. And yet that’s justifiable, that’s acceptable,” Conway remarked sarcastically. “Brian, look at these articles that are everywhere in the last week or two where mainstream media, so-called reporters, quote unquote, are outwardly saying that Donald Trump pushes their limits of objectivity, that they are challenging each other to cover him more aggressively because they believe he should not be president and commander in chief. Guess what, folks? That’s not their job. Their job is to report the news to you and not decide who should and who should not be president and then try to make that conclusion a reality.”

(h/t Politico)

Reality

If you can’t tell by the title of this article, Conway’s assertion is pretty bold coming from a campaign that was built on insulting and name-calling its way to the top. At Republican debates and during various campaign stops, Trump would roll out clever nicknames for his political rivals. Among them; “Lyin’ Ted” (Ted Cruz), “Little Marco” Marco Rubio), “Crooked Hillary” (Hillary Clinton), and “Goofy Elizabeth Warren.”

Here are a few other examples of Trump hurling insults:

JUNE 16, 2015 – Trump officially threw his clown hat into the circus that would soon be the 2016 race with a jaw-dropping, ad-libbed speech in which he insulted Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” derided foreign countries and lambasted President Obama and other American leaders as “losers.”

JULY 18, 2015 – In one of his cruelest, and strangest attacks, Trump, at a conservative summit in Iowa, ripped John McCain, a former prisoner of war. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said dismissively of McCain, who spent more than five years being tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and suffered permanent injuries as a result. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

AUG. 6, 2015 – Tenacious moderator Megyn Kelly kicked off the event by reminding Trump that he’d called “women you don’t like, ‘fat pigs, ‘dogs, slobs and disgusting animal.’ Trump interjected, “Only Rosie O’Donnell,” setting off tensions between he, the conservative news network, and the entire GOP establishment that have yet to fully cool.

AUG. 7, 2015 – Trump, clearly affected by Kelly’s aggressive questioning of him during the initial GOP debate, was quick to go on the attack against the respected journalist. In an interview the night after the debate, Trump blasted Kelly for bringing up his years of piggish, anti-women remarks, as she questioned him during the Republican debate. He even suggested disgustingly that her ire was a product of menstrual cycle. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her – wherever,” Trump said

NOV. 24, 2015 – Trump mocked reporter’s physical handicap. “Now the poor guy, you ought to see the guy,” Trump said, mimicking New York Times (and former Daily News) reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that limits the movement of the joints and weakens the muscles around them. “‘Uhh, I don’t know what I said. I don’t remember,'” Trump said, gyrating his arms as he mocked Kovaleski’s movements.

AUG 1, 2016 – Trump insults Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son, Army Captain Humayun Khan, died in the line of duty in 2004, after they criticized him during a speech at the Democratic National Convention. Trump bizarrely claimed his real estate empire was a “sacrifice” and questioned why Ghazala Khan stayed silent on stage while her husband spoke. “If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably – maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” Trump said, suggesting that the Khans’ Muslim faith barred the woman from speaking out.

Donald Trump Jr. Retweets Prominent White Supremacist

Just days after Hillary Clinton criticized the Trump campaign for promoting groups and individuals associated with preserving “white identity,” Donald Trump Jr. has retweeted an adherent of the “alt-right” movement that Clinton singled out for criticism.

Donald Trump’s oldest son this week retweeted a post from Kevin MacDonald, a former professor at California State University Long Beach who now runs a website about “White Identity, Interests, and Culture.” He has been accused of anti-Semitism by critics, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is the leading organization that tracks hate groups.

MacDonald said last week that white people in America are becoming a victimized minority and that Colin Kaepernick struggles as a quarterback because he lacks the leadership abilities inherent to his white teammates.

MacDonald’s tweet had to do with Clinton’s State Department and perceived favoritism for UBS, a global financial services company that donated to the Clinton Foundation.

trump-jr-tweet-kevin-macdonald-hrc-foundation

Trump Jr.’s retweet prompted Richard Spencer, a leader of the alt-right movement, to tweet “Wow. Just wow.”

(h/t New York Times, Slate)

Reality

Journalists have noticed that Donald Trump Jr. follows many known white supremacists in the alt-right movement on his Twitter account, including users @Bidenshairplugs and @Ricky_Vaughn99.

Trump on Kaepernick: Maybe he should find another country

49er Quarterback Colin Kaepernick

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has weighed in on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to refuse to stand for the playing of the national anthem in protest of what he deems as racial injustice in the United States in addition to recent comments from the quarterback on Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“I have followed it and I think it’s personally not a good thing. I think it’s a terrible thing, and you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him, let him try, it’s not gonna happen,” Trump told The Dori Monson Show on Monday, per Buzzfeed.

Kaepernick has refused to stand during the national anthem during the Niners’ three preseason games this summer, telling NFL Media’s Steve Wyche that his decision is based on perceived societal wrongdoings against African-Americans and minorities in the U.S.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told Steve Wyche Friday night. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Kaepernick reiterated his stance during an 18-minute long media session in the Niners locker room Sunday, during which he told reporters he planned to continue to sit during the playing of the national anthem. Kaepernick also was critical of both Trump and Clinton when he met with the media.

“I think the two presidential candidates that we currently have also represent the issues that we have in this country right now. You have Hillary who’s called black teens or black kids super predators. You have Donald Trump who is openly racist. We have a presidential candidate who deleted emails and done things illegally and is a presidential candidate. That doesn’t make sense to me. Because if that was any other person, you’d be in prison. So what is this country really standing for?”

The Niners released the following statement this weekend regarding Kaepernick’s decision:

“The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.”

(h/t NFL.com)

Reality

We will not wade into the discussion surrounding Colin Kaepernick’s controversial protest, but we will take issue with Trump’s moronic logic of “if you don’t like American then get out.”

Trump is committing a major logical problem called the “false dilemma” fallacy, otherwise known as “black-and-white thinking.” It assumes that there are only two viable options available: namely, show an unflinching and blind love and patriotism for America or move out of the US to some foreign country.

Obviously, restricting to these two options are not justified. One can live in this country and still criticize it without any contradiction. Consider a third option, which is one of the duties of any citizen, American or not, to try and make their country more perfect.

It is also important at this time to point out that Donald Trump himself has many times been very critical of the United States. He claims America “doesn’t win anymore,” has “weak leaders,” and during his convention speech described America as falling apart, a nation devoid of jobs, brimming with illegal immigrants and rampant with crime. It was a bleak indictment of the nation.

And according to polls, Trump supporters said they like the candidate because of his willingness to state blunt truths about America and “tell it like it is,” unburdened of the perceived niceties of “political correctness.”

So Trump supporters wearing their “Make America Great Again” hats shouldn’t be so quick to defend him over his hypocritical and illogical reasoning.

Trump Surrogate Mark Burns Tweets Cartoon of Clinton in Blackface

Pastor Mark Burns, a prominent surrogate for Donald Trump, on Monday tweeted out a cartoon that accuses Hillary Clinton of pandering and portrays her in blackface.

Burns, who spoke at the Republican National Convention and has appeared on TV frequently as Trump intensifies his pitch to African-American voters, shared the meme of the former secretary of state, which shows her behind a lectern marked by her signature “H” logo and the text “Hillary 2016.”

The graphic shows Clinton wearing a black T-shirt that reads “No hot sauce no peace!” and wielding a placard that says “#@!*✶ the police.”

“I ain’t no ways tired of pandering to African Americans,” the text next to Clinton reads, emphasizing the word “pandering.”

“Black Americans, THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOTES and letting me use you again..See you again in 4 years,” Burns tweeted, apparently conveying a message from Clinton to black voters.

The South Carolina evangelical dismissed the graphic as a “satire drawing” and maintained that while the blackface element may be offensive to African-Americans, what’s more offensive is the number of black people on welfare and food stamps.

Burns said he posted the picture to draw attention to Clinton’s pandering, decrying her policies as bad for African-Americans and condemning black voters for giving Democrats their votes without having to earn them.

“The tweet is a frustration that I have as a black man here in America and how I see African-Americans in many cases — not every case but in many cases — are suffering throughout this country and to see how en masse we have been voting for the Democratic Party en masse and yet we have very little to show for it,” he said during a phone interview on MSNBC. “It’s a vexation to me to see how the Democratic Party, and especially Hillary Clinton, what I call tap dance for the black vote, get it and then disappear for four more years.”

Trump himself has only recently begun reaching out to minority voters for the first time in his campaign, blaming Democrats for the plight of African-Americans who live in inner cities as he asks for the support of black and Hispanic voters in scripted speeches across the country.

The real estate mogul on Sunday acknowledged the 53rd anniversary of the March On Washington with a brief statement honoring the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and all who marched alongside him.

The campaign also announced Sunday that Trump would be speaking to The Impact Network, a black-owned national Christian television network, in Detroit on Saturday.

“Mr. Trump will answer questions that are relevant to the African American community such as education (including HBCUs), unemployment, making our streets safe and creating better opportunities for all,” Burns said in the statement released by Trump’s campaign. “He will then give an address to outline policies that will impact minorities and the disenfranchised in our country. Citizens around the country will see, as I’ve have seen, the heart and compassion Mr. Trump has for all Americans, which includes minority communities whose votes have been taken for granted for far too long.”

(h/t Politico)

Update

Mark Burns later apologized for the post, saying it was “not at all my intention to offend anyone.”

“The tweet is a frustration that I have as a black man here in America and how I see African-Americans in many cases — not every case but in many cases — are suffering throughout this country and to see how en masse we have been voting for the Democratic Party en masse and yet we have very little to show for it,” Burn said during a phone interview on MSNBC earlier this week, explaining his original blackface tweet. “It’s a vexation to me to see how the Democratic Party, and especially Hillary Clinton, what I call tap dance for the black vote, get it and then disappear for four more years.”

Donald Trump is wrong that ‘inner-city crime is reaching record levels’

As part of Donald Trump’s declared outreach to black voters, the Republican presidential nominee has painted a dire picture of American “inner cities” rife with crime, and stated only he can make them safe.

(h/t Wall Street Journal)

Reality

PolitiFact gave Trump’s claim a “Pants on Fire,” their worst truth rating, and even the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal corrected Trump on his disregard for the facts.

While crime has indeed ticked up recently, according to FBI data it remains near historic lows, even in America’s largest cities like Mr. Trump’s hometown of New York City.

And even if crime isn’t hitting record levels, there is growing evidence that there has been a one-year uptick, at least in certain cities. Trump’s supporters have seized on this as evidence that Trump isn’t totally off base in claiming that crime is on the rise.

Even if the recent one-year spike proves durable, the rates of homicides and violent crime in general have fallen so much in the past 25 years that the recent increases will not push them up to “record” levels at any time in the near future.

 

Trump spreads claim that Clinton’s ‘mentor’ was ‘KKK member’

Donald Trump on Saturday pushed back against Hillary Clinton’s efforts to link him to the Ku Klux Klan.

The Republican nominee retweeted a supporter’s post that the Democratic nominee “said a KKK member was her mentor.” And speaking later in Des Moines, Iowa, he dredged up Clinton’s use of the term “super predators” in the 1990s to argue that he, not Clinton, offered African-Americans the best choice for president.

Trump’s retweet and his latest appeals to black voters capped off a week of increasingly ugly and racially charged accusations between the two leading presidential candidates, during which Trump called Clinton a “bigot” and the Democratic nominee charged that Trump’s campaign was built on “prejudice and paranoia” while also tying him to the KKK.

“@DiamondandSilk: Crooked Hillary getting desperate. On TV bashing Trump. @CNN, she forgot how she said a KKK member was her mentor,” Trump tweeted Saturday.

Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson — better known as Diamond and Silk, two African-American sisters supporting Trump who frequently speak at his rallies — confirmed to CNN that the tweet referred to the late West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, a former KKK member whom Clinton mourned in 2010 as “a true American original, my friend and mentor.”

“Donald J. Trump can’t help who embraces his campaign but Hillary Clinton could’ve helped who she embraced,” the duo said in a statement to CNN.

A Trump spokesman, Jason Miller, declined to comment, and a message left with Clinton’s campaign was not returned.

Trump’s surrogates in recent days have pointed to Clinton’s relationship with Byrd in response to accusations that Trump’s campaign stokes racial tensions.

Thursday night, Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes also cited Byrd, telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “(Clinton) sat there and praised Sen. Byrd saying that he was her mentor, that he should be respected and he was a leader of the KKK.”

And on Friday, Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany, speaking to CNN’s Jim Sciutto on “The Lead,” said Trump’s campaign was not engaging in Clinton’s “gutter politics.”

“You have heard no language to this level coming out of the Trump campaign,” McEnany said. “They could be digging into her past with Robert Byrd.”

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Yes it is true that Senator Robert Byrd was a mentor to Hillary Clinton when she joined the senate. Yes it is true that Senator Byrd was a member of the KKK, but what Trump is deceitfully neglecting to mention is that Byrd was a member, as in, used to be a member, in his youth decades before meeting Clinton. By the time Hillarly Clinton joined the Senate, Robert Byrd had disavowed the Klan decades ago, explained it was wrong, and had such an exemplary civil rights voting record he was graded at 100% by the NAACP.

When Senator Byrd died in 2010, the NAACP released a statement praising Byrd, saying that he “became a champion for civil rights and liberties” and “came to consistently support the NAACP civil rights agenda”.

These are the facts, I’m sorry. Donald Trump and his surrogates did not tell the entire story.

It also glosses over the fact Donald Trump was endorsed by the actual KKK , he failed to condone former Grand Wizard David Duke’s endorsement, had multiple known white supremacists representing him at the Republican National Convention, and Trump’s own father was caught at a KKK rally.

Trump sparks outrage with tweet about Dwyane Wade’s cousin’s death

Instead of initially offering condolences, Donald Trump looked ahead to Election Day when reacting to news that Chicago Bulls star Dwyane Wade’s cousin had been killed. Nykea Aldridge, a mother of four, was reportedly caught in the crossfire while pushing a baby stroller in Chicago’s South Side on Friday.

“Dwayne Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!” the GOP nominee tweeted Saturday morning.

Trump later updated his tweet with the correct spelling of Wade’s name but left the rest of the message intact. Then, four hours after sparking the initial firestorm, he posted another tweet offering his sympathies to the basketball player’s family.

Trump has been making direct appeals to black voters in recent weeks. Last week, he held a rally in the predominantly white suburb of Dimondale, Mich., and asked the African-American community what they had to lose by supporting him.

“You’re living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed,” Trump said. His stereotype of African-American neighborhoods was widely criticized as offensive.

(h/t Yahoo News)

Trump’s Stunning Flip-Flop on Immigration

The list of flip-flops that Donald Trump has made since descending an escalator in his namesake tower last year and into the presidential campaign continues to grow.

In the latest instance, he has described his change in tone on immigration as a “softening” of a stance he previously touted rather than a complete reversal.

Other issues on which he had different feelings before the presidential campaign include abortion and assault rifles. But the bigger surprises have come after he announced one stance early in the presidential campaign and then switched his position.

Trump has spoken throughout the campaign about his plans for a “deportation force,” but his campaign staff has indicated in recent days that such plans may not come to fruition exactly as previously described.

In November he mentioned a possible force to target unauthorized immigrants.

“You are going to have a deportation force, and you are going to do it humanely,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Now Trump has signaled that he’s adjusting his position.

“There certainly can be a softening, because we’re not looking to hurt people,” he said during a Fox News town hall event Tuesday, Aug. 23.

“We want people — we have some great people in this country. We have some great, great people in this country. But, so, we’re going to follow the laws of this country. What people don’t realize — we have very, very strong laws,” Trump said.

His comments stand in stark contrast to one of the more controversial portions of his presidential announcement in June 2015, when he said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

(h/t ABC News)

Reality

With the many other flip-flops since becoming the Republican party’s nominee, Trump rejected almost every stance that his supporters loved which separated him from the other Republican primary candidates.

In fact, Trump’s new proposal is nearly identical to Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio’s positions during the Republican primaries.

Some other notable flip-flops by Trump include:

  • His ‘sarcasm’ about Obama’s being the ‘literal founder of ISIS.’
  • The ‘complete and total shutdown’ of Muslims entering the country became only the rich ones, then to a ‘ideological test.’
  • Changed his tax plan that obviously saved billionaires like him loads of money, to a new plan that would save billionaires like him some money.
  • During the primaries claimed he would self-fund, then during the general he now accepts big donations while still claiming self-funding.
  • Promised to protect the 2nd Amendment, then he has also repeatedly suggested that there should be some reforms, including an effort to stop people on the terrorist watch list from being able to get guns.
  • For years before running for President, Trump was a staunch pro-choice supporter, then switched to pro-life. During interviews he held the position that women who get abortions should face “some form of punishment” then changed to the doctor being punished, all while abortion being completely.
  • Said the minimum wage was “too high,” then we shouldn’t raise it, then we should raise it.
  • In September, Trump said that he would support asylum for refugees from Syria, given the circumstances in the country, then three weeks later reversed course.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cblBRiYQYk

Trump Avoids Speaking to Black Voters Because “He’s Not Safe in Their Communities”

In what has become a seemingly endless series of CNN panels arguing over GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s awkward play for black votes, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski tried out a new — and possibly more insulting spin — on Trump’s avoidance of black voters.

He wouldn’t be safe addressing them in their own communities.

Lewandowski was part of a panel Monday night hosted by Anderson Cooper when he was asked why Trump doesn’t appeal to black voter by actually meeting with them instead of talking about them in front of predominately white audiences.

“You know what’s amazing to me is that no one remembers Donald Trump went to go have a rally in Chicago at the university. And remember what happened?” Lewandowski  began. “It was so chaotic and it was so out-of-control that the Secret Service and the Chicago Police Department told him you cannot get in and out of the facility safely. And that rally was cancelled.”

Several panelists jumped in with the same question: “What does that have to do with communicating with the black community?”

Look!” Lewandowski shot back. “That is a black community. He went to the heart of Chicago to give a speech to the University of Chicago in a campus that is predominately African-American to make that argument. And you know what happened? The campus was overrun and it was not a safe environment.”

Panelist Angela Rye replied, “Would you acknowledge that not all black communities all over the country are still not monolithic. So if he tried the same thing in Cleveland–”

Lewandowski immediately cut her off, saying “He tried to go to Chicago and wasn’t allowed to make the speech–” as Rye shot back, “What about Dallas? What about Los Angeles?”

Lewandowski then complained that they were complaining about the venue and not the content of Trump’s speech, when Rye cut in again.

“I just tried to tell you it’s not monolithic,” she stated.

“So whose fault is that that that particular event in Chicago was completely destroyed?” he asked.

“It’s not all black people!” Rye hit back, only to have Lewandowski reply, “I didn’t say it was.”

Conservative CNN commentator Tara Setmayer then joined with Rye, going after the Trump advocate by pointing out that the Chicago audience was “predominately white” just like the others Trump has appeared before.

Lewandowski stated that the event was open to the public so there must have been “some African-Americans” inside which caused Setmayer to throw up her hands.

(h/t Raw Story)

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h-YoF-g9L4&feature=youtu.be

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