It seemed like a powerful counterpoint to the perception of Donald Trump
as intolerant: A hundred black ministers and religious leaders would
endorse him at his offices in Manhattan, vouching for his sensitivity
and broad-mindedness.
But within hours of the announcement a few days ago, furious backtracking, denials and finger-pointing were underway.
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 Mr. Trump. In the end,
his political debut with black leaders was refashioned into a private
meeting with a smaller group that played down talk of endorsements.
A
few of those who showed up sounded uncomfortable. “It appears as if
he’s a possible racist based upon some of the things he said about black
America,” said Brehon Hall, a preacher from Toledo, Ohio, as he headed
into the meeting at Trump Tower.
But
it also captures the degree to which Mr. Trump, both the man and the
candidate, has polarized African-Americans, a group he is now courting
as he tries to shake accusations of bigotry. During the meeting on
Monday, black ministers challenged Mr. Trump over his record, and
suggested he apologize for his incendiary language, according to those
who attended.
In
an interview afterward, Mr. Trump described “great love in the room”
and a wide-ranging, two-hour discussion of black unemployment, police
shootings and deficiencies of urban education. “They liked me, and I
liked them,” he said.
With
a history of racially divisive remarks dating back decades, Mr. Trump
had alienated many black leaders long before his current presidential
campaign espoused what some viewed as coded language about “a silent
majority” and overt dismissiveness of the swelling Black Lives Matter
movement.
By
the time African-American ministers like Corletta J. Vaughn of Detroit
saw their names listed on a flier as attendees of a meeting that would
end with an endorsement of Mr. Trump, a number of them expressed
outrage.
“You’ve
got to be kidding me,” Ms. Vaughn, the senior pastor at the Holy Spirit
Cathedral of Faith in Detroit, said she remembered thinking when she
saw the document. “That would kill me. My constituency would murder me.
There is no way in the world I can do that.”
Despite
the flier’s claim that she would meet with Mr. Trump, Ms. Vaughn said
she had declined the invitation. So did Bishop Clarence E. McClendon of
Los Angeles, another minister mentioned on the flier.
On
Monday, the mounting frustration had boiled over. In New York City, a
planned meeting on gun violence earlier in the day turned into a public
scolding of Mr. Trump and the ministers in Harlem.
Invoking
Mr. Trump’s charged language about immigrants (he has previously
claimed Mexico was sending “rapists” across the border), the Rev. Al
Sharpton wondered why black religious leaders would seek to bask “in the
glow of a billionaire” while “offending their congregants and offending
their cloth.”
“Let
us not forget,” Mr. Sharpton said from the pulpit of his National
Action Network, “Jesus was a refugee, and they are meeting with someone
who has taken a mean stance against refugees. I don’t know how you
preach Jesus, a refugee, on Sunday and then deal with a refugee-basher
on Monday without raising the question.”
In
a sign of his newly conciliatory tone on racial matters, Mr. Trump, who
relishes rhetorical battle and leaves no attack unanswered, offered
warm words to Mr. Sharpton on Monday afternoon.
“Deep down inside, Al likes me a lot,” Mr. Trump said in the interview. “That I can tell you.”
He gently added, “Al is doing his thing.”.
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