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While Athletes Speak Out, Trump Drops the Ball with Black Voters

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

Donald Trump is a political commentator's dream in the usually news-challenged weeks of late summer when we're looking for someone to complain about.

For example, he rejects "political correctness." He says it takes too much time. That reminds me of an old nugget of good advice: If you don't have the time to do it right, when will you find time the time to do it over?

In recent days, for example, we have seen the Republican presidential nominee try to upstage his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's speech on race relations by calling her "a bigot," of all things.

"We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton," he said at a Wisconsin rally on Aug. 16, "which panders to and talks down to communities of color and sees them only as votes -- that's all they care about -- not as individual human beings worthy of a better future."

Yet a few days later, he sent out a tweet about a tragedy in NBA star Dwyane Wade's family that sounded as though he was, yes, seeing communities of color only as votes.

"Dwayne Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago," Trump tweeted, misspelling Wade's first name. "Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!"

 

Say what? Oh, yeah, I'm really ready to vote for Trump now. Not.

Wade's cousin Nykea Aldridge, 32, was fatally shot Friday afternoon while the mother of four was pushing a baby stroller down a South Side Chicago street on the way to register her children for school. Police described her as the innocent victim of a bullet intended for someone else.

Two brothers with multiple arrests in their backgrounds were held without bond on first-degree murder charges.

The breathtaking callousness of Trump's tweet kicked up a Twitter storm of its own.

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(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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