Trump cancels event with black pastors after other clergy raise concerns

“I saw it, many people saw it”, Trump insisted, “so why would I take it back?”

In this November 18, 2015, photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, gives a speech on foreign policy and national defense on the campus of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. In a presidential campaign that has suddenly shifted in focus to terrorism and security, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bush both see opportunities to cast themselves as best prepared to be commander in chief in tumultuous times.

After numerous religious leaders invited to the meet-and-greet objected over the weekend to its description as an endorsement event, Trump’s campaign chose to keep the meeting private and canceled a press conference afterward meant to announce the support of the pastors.

“Why wouldn’t it have taken place?” he said of a celebration there. “I’ve had hundreds of people call in and tweet in on Twitter, saying they saw it and I was 100% right”, he told NBC.

But Trump says he has sources to the contrary. Trump came under fire a week ago for saying at another rally and in a nationally televised appearance that he watched thousands of people in Jersey City cheer the World Trade Center’s implosion.

Amid reports of the planned meeting, a separate group of black pastors asked their colleagues to reconsider.

But there was no wide-ranging endorsement from the group, some of whom had said they were surprised when the gathering was advertised as such by Trump’s Republican presidential campaign.

Scott said more than 100 preachers from across the country attended the meeting, despite criticism in an open letter in Ebony magazine from more than 100 black religious leaders.

“Mr. Trump will be joined by a coalition of 100 African American Evangelical pastors and religious leaders who will endorse the GOP frontrunner after a private meeting at Trump Tower”, Trump’s campaign said in a statement late last week.

On Fox News Sunday, Carly Fiorina said Trump’s game plan is to say something “insulting, offensive, outrageous”, so that the “media pays attention”, and then he “claims we all misunderstood him”. “I respectively declined as I do not support nor will endorse Donald Trump”. “I’m pretty confident that the more they hear of him the less likely he’s going to get the Republican nomination”.

Maybe the faith leaders who laid hands on Mr. Trump, and the OH pastor who organized tomorrow’s telecast with the black clergy, know something the rest of us doesn’t.

The senior pastor of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of Faith in Detroit defended herself on Facebook after it was announced that she would be meeting with Trump.

Trump hasn’t yet produced evidence of dancing Muslims, but he told “Meet the Press” that “we’re looking for other articles and we’re looking for other clips and I wouldn’t be surprised if we found them…”

“Why would he make such comments that could be extremely controversial and again could cause tremendous racial tension instead of racial unity”, said Burns.