Trump will meet with black pastors, forgoes press conference after

Trump was expected to hold a press conference at 1 p.m. ET on Monday to announce the support of up to 100 religious leaders from many early primary states.

Trump’s campaign had originally promoted today’s meeting, which reportedly involves almost 100 African-American pastors, as an endorsement, sending out a news release Wednesday using that language.

The Trump campaign announced the meeting on Friday, but over the weekend, a group of black academics and clergy posted a letter on the website of Ebony Magazine, warning the pastors that endorsing Trump would be “a mistake”.

Trump said of the cancellation: “Probably some of the Black Lives Matter folks called them up and said, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be meeting with Trump because he believes all lives matter, ‘” referring to the movement protesting against police brutality and the killing of unarmed African-Americans.

“They accused Mr. Trump of being an insulting individual but they’ve levied insults at us that I wouldn’t levy against people I hate”, Scott said.

The backlash came as Trump has drawn fresh condemnation after a Black Lives Matter protester was physically attacked at his campaign rally.

“What it shows is that the work we’ve put in here in New Hampshire, the plans we’ve laid out – that people are taking them seriously and taking them to heart”, Christie said. If I said, ‘Well, people have said Mr. Trump’s not worth $10 billion, and people were saying, ‘ you would say that’s insane.

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt to see how the campaign unfolded, Bush said. “I mean, Trump has criticized and insulted women, Hispanics, Muslims and reporters”, Kasich said.

But Trump was endorsed by some members of the group, including the Rev. Darrell Scott of the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Pastor Steve Parson, a Richmond-area minister in Virginia. “But if he keeps going and he actually becomes president he may get around to you and you better hope that there’s someone left to help you”, Moe said, paraphrasing the anti-Nazi words of German pastor Martin Niemoller. “I think they’re trouble”.

But several black pastors invited to the gathering quickly rebutted the endorsement talk, forcing the cancellation of the planned press conference and leaving Trump in an awkward spot. “So, why would I take it back I’m not going to take it back”.

Host Chuck Todd informed Trump that “there were three of four different reports that month in New Jersey that said it was a myth, that said it was a false rumor. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Sometime later he will get into an argument on “Meet the Press” in which he insists there is video of them endorsing him”.

Shocking that promoting “all lives matter” on a day when cops in both Baltimore and Chicago are on trial for killing black people would be reasonable fodder to shy away from him.