PRESIDENTIAL RACE | Trump steps up minority outreach; FBI releases notes on Clinton emails

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

Donald Trump was met with tears and gratitude as he sat with African-American supporters Friday, including the mother of a slain young woman who was killed in an attack by a group that included men who had entered the U.S. illegally.

The back-to-back meetings in a ballroom in Northwest Philadelphia underscored the balancing act the Republican nominee is playing as he tries to expand his support in the race against Democrat Hillary Clinton. While Trump works to broaden his appeal among more moderate and minority voters, he’s also working to maintain his popularity with his core GOP base by pressing his hard-line views on immigration.

At an invite-only roundtable discussion, Trump met with a dozen local business, civic and religious leaders who praised him for coming to “the hood” as part of his outreach efforts. Trump was warmly received by the group, including Daphne Goggins, a local Republican official, who wiped away tears as she introduced herself to Trump. “For the first time in my life,” she told him, “I feel like my vote is going to count.”

Renee Amoore, a local business leader, assured Trump that he has support in the black community, despite his low standing in public opinion surveys.

“People say, Mr. Trump, that you have no African-American support. We want you to know that you do,” she said. “We appreciate you and what you’ve done, coming to ‘the hood,’ as people call it. That’s a big deal.”

Also on Friday, the FBI took the unusual step of releasing to the public documents related to its yearlong investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state. The documents include a summary of her July interview with FBI agents as well as a detailed chronology of steps that investigators took in deciding whether criminal charges were warranted.

The Democratic presidential nominee told the FBI she never sought or asked permission to use a private server or email address during her tenure as the nation’s top diplomat from 2009 to 2013. A prior review by the State Department’s internal watchdog concluded the practice violated several polices for the safekeeping and preservation of federal records. Clinton also told the FBI that she relied on her staff not to send emails containing classified information to the private email server.

The latest developments highlight competing liabilities for Clinton. Either she made a conscious effort to prevent a full public accounting of her tenure at State or she was nonchalant about decisions with national security consequences and risks. The first scenario plays into Republican arguments and voter concerns about her trustworthiness and transparency, while the second casts doubt on her pitch as a hyper-competent, detail-driven executive.

Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said Friday the campaign was pleased the FBI had released the documents.

“While her use of a single email account was clearly a mistake and she has taken responsibility for it, these materials make clear why the Justice Department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case,” Fallon said.

Trump countered that Clinton’s “answers to the FBI about her private email server defy belief.”

“After reading these documents, I really don’t understand how she was able to get away from prosecution,” Trump said in a statement.

Trump’s meeting in Philadelphia highlighted his own challenges he faces making inroads with African-Americans and Latinos. Protesters gathered in front of the building where Trump appeared, and a coalition of labor leaders met nearby to denounce Trump’s outreach to black voters as disingenuous and insulting.

Ryan Boyer of the Labor District Council said Trump “has no prescription to help inner-city America.”

“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior,” said Boyer, speaking at the council’s headquarters. “He did nothing for African-Americans in 30 years of public life. We reject his notion that we have nothing to lose by supporting him.”

The next stop for Trump is Detroit, where blacks make up some 83 percent of the population. He’s expected to visit a church with a predominantly black congregation while there Saturday.

In addition to planning trips to urban centers, Trump has revamped his campaign pitch to include a direct appeal to African-Americans and Hispanics, making the case that decades of Democratic policies have failed them. But so far, Trump’s outreach has largely fallen flat. Many minority voters have found Trump’s dire description of their lives to be condescending, and African-American community leaders have dismissed Trump’s message – delivered largely in front of predominantly white rally audiences – as intended more to reassure undecided white voters that he’s not racist than to actually help communities of color. Public opinion surveys show Clinton polling far ahead of Trump with minority voters.

Even on Friday, the signs of his unpopularity hung subtly in the background. The pastor who operates the nonprofit where he held his meetings publicly distanced himself from the visit.

And attendee Debbie Williams, a Republican running for Congress, told Trump her race was “going well,” but added, “I can only imagine what’s going to happen” after the meeting.