The Note: Clinton, Trump Tangle Over Racism

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here.

August 26, 2016

MORE POLITICS >

Clinton, Trump Tangle Over Racism

Kellyanne Conway on 'GMA' Says Trump 'Deserves Credit' for African-American Outreach

Donald Trump's campaign manager today defended her candidate's outreach to African-American voters, saying he "deserves credit" for doing so, ABC's MICHAEL HAYDEN notes. "This conversation has to be had," Kellyanne Conway said on "Good Morning America," referring to Trump's recent remarks that included his suggestion that black Americans are "living in poverty." "Usually, Republican nominees are not bold enough to go into communities of color and compete for all ears and all votes. Mr. Trump deserves credit," she added. She also criticized Hillary Clinton's relationship with the black community, suggesting that her policies would not help them. "Her policies have left many people behind," she told co-host GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS. http://abcn.ws/2boEjU1

Conway Addressed Trump's Characterization of Clinton as a 'Bigot'

"Have you seen what this man has been called on a regular basis?" Conway said, discussing the widespread criticism of Trump's remarks earlier this week in Jackson, Mississippi where he said: "Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future." http://abcn.ws/2boEjU1

Clinton Weighs In

Today in an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Hillary Clinton was asked by host Joe Scarborough: "Do you think Donald Trump is a personally a bigot or a racist?" Clinton said: "All I can do is point to the evidence of what he has said and what he has done. From the start, he has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia. It is deeply disturbing that he is taking hate groups that lived in the dark regions of the internet making them mainstream, helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party. He questioned the citizenship of president Obama. He has a disturbing pattern of courting white supremacists. He has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color. He attacked a judge for his Mexican heritage. He promised a mass deportation force. What I want to make clear is this, a man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and these kind of white supremacist, white nationalist, anti-Semitic groups should never run our government and command our military."

Analysis -- ABC's Rick Klein

It's called a "touchback" policy in immigration parlance, and it serves – for the brief moment, at least – as the operative campaign position of Donald Trump. Deliberately or not, Trump has managed to muddle his messaging on immigration for a full week now, capped by a CNN interview where he said he might actually be "hardening" his stance on immigration, two days after he allowed that it was "softening." "There is no path to legalization unless they leave the country and come back," Trump told Anderson Cooper. Leaving aside the open question of whether this will still be considered amnesty by the Steve King/Ann Coulter/Sarah Palin crowd, this adds a new wrinkle to the crumbled paper that serves as Trump's current policy. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that there is no Trump immigration policy – not until he outlines it in a coherent fashion, either on paper or in a speech. Maybe, or even probably, none of that matters to Trump's core supporters. But this was supposed to be (the latest) week that Trump got back on track. He's dialed back his attacks – but continues to do himself damage simply by talking about his own policies. For those hoping for a new, disciplined Trump, let that sink in.

This Week on 'This Week'

Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile weighs in on the state of the 2016 race, Sunday on "This Week." And the Powerhouse Roundtable debates the week in politics, with Purple Strategies chair and Rebuilding America Now PAC strategist Alex Castellanos, President Obama's 2012 deputy campaign manager and Precision Strategies founding partner Stephanie Cutter, ABC News contributor and Republican strategist Ana Navarro, and former Bernie Sanders campaign national press secretary Symone Sanders.