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UPDATED: Tuesday, August 23, 9:11 AM EST: 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday doubled down on his oblivious and offensive quest to woo Black voters.

Speaking before a largely White crowd in Ohio, The Washington Post reports that he “made a passionate pitch to African American and Hispanic voters, whom he described as living in poverty in neighborhoods that are more dangerous than war zones,” asking again and again, “What do you have to lose?”

From The Post:

It’s a question that Trump first posed to African American voters during a rally in North Carolina on Thursday. He then repeated it at a rally in Michigan on Friday evening and Virginia on Saturday night. In Ohio on Monday, Trump expanded his pitch to include Hispanics.

“Our government has totally failed our African American friends, our Hispanic friends and the people of our country. Period,” Trump said in Akron, Ohio, straying from the prepared remarks the campaign provided to reporters. “The Democrats have failed completely in the inner cities. For those hurting the most who have been failed and failed by their politician — year after year, failure after failure, worse numbers after worse numbers. Poverty. Rejection. Horrible education. No housing, no homes, no ownership. Crime at levels that nobody has seen. You can go to war zones in countries that we are fighting and it’s safer than living in some of our inner cities that are run by the Democrats. And I ask you this, I ask you this — crime, all of the problems — to the African Americans, who I employ so many, so many people, to the Hispanics, tremendous people: What the hell do you have to lose? Give me a chance. I’ll straighten it out. I’ll straighten it out. What do you have to lose?”

The mostly white crowd cheered and then started chanting: “Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!”

SOURCE: The Washington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty


Donald Trump Delivers Clueless Speech About Black Issues To White Audience

Following days of protests over a police-involved shooting of a Black man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Donald Trump delivered a speech to a largely White audience outside the city in which he described poor urban neighborhoods as the victims of decades of neglect by the Democratic Party.

Pointing to problems of crime, poverty, and education that have plagued Milwaukee and other communities, he described them as consequences of Democrats having a lock on the Black vote.

He vowed that he would not take voters of color for granted. “[Clinton] doesn’t care at all about the hurting people of this country or the suffering she has caused them,” Trump said, writes CNN. “Now is the time for new leadership. The Hillary Clinton agenda hurts poor people by far the most.


WATCH: Roland Martin and his panel of guests discuss Donald Trump’s appeal to Black voters in the video clip below.

Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.


But the setting for Trump’s pitch to Black America was jarring. He spoke at the Washington County fairgrounds in a largely White community about 25 miles from Milwaukee.

The choice of venue immediately became the subject of discussion on social media and among political pundits, in part, because Trump’s campaign has been accused of doing little outreach to the Black community. As a result, he draws just one percent of the African-American vote, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

That’s not all. His campaign has turned down appearances before high-profile African-American audiences, including the National Urban League, the NAACP, and a joint NABJ/NAHJ conference.

Nonetheless, there he was Tuesday in Wisconsin, delivering a speech appealing for the Black vote.

It’s time for our society to address some honest and very, very difficult truths,” Trump said, according to USA Today. “The Democratic Party has failed and betrayed the African-American community. Democratic crime policies, education policies and economic policies have produced only more crime, more broken homes and more poverty.”

What do you think of Trump’s speech? Sound off in comments.

SOURCE: NBCCNN, USA Today | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty | VIDEO CREDIT: YouTube

SEE ALSO: 

Trump Says No To ‘The Blacks:’ He Will Not Attend NAACP Ohio Convention

A Spotlight On Race In America

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