Clinton faces mixed reaction in bid for black vote
hired illegal workers to build Trump Tower.
The Senatoreven attempted to puncture the business mystique of the author of The Art of the Deal. “If he hadn’t inherited $200m, you know where Donald Trump would be right now? Selling watches in Manhattan,” he jibed.
MrTrump might have been on the defensive as never before, but repeatedly scorned the men on each side of him, his two nearest rivals.
“This one’s a choke artist,” he said, pointing at Mr Rubio, who had stumbled during an earlier debate in New Hampshire. “And this one’s a liar,” he added, glaring menacingly at Mr Cruz.
Yesterday, he took aim at Mr Rubio again. “Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. The problem is, he is a choker, and once a choker, always a choker! Mr Meltdown,” he wrote.
However, hunting season on Mr Trump is now officially open. Two ferocious television advertising spots aired for the first time yesterday, paid for by a super-PAC supporting Mr Rubio. One attacked the billionaire on foreign policy, the other on his record of four business bankruptcies.
Mr Trump argued that his illegal worker violation was 38 years ago, but Mr Rubio gave him no quarter. “I guess there is a statute of limitations on lies,” he said. “You’re the only person on this stage that has ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally.” As for Mr Trump’s proposed Mexican border wall, “he’ll be building it with illegal immigrants”. It is barely eight months since nine black people were shot dead by a young white man as they attended a Bible study group at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
As South Carolina prepares to hold its Democratic primary, the incident has been high on Hillary Clinton’s agenda, as she works to cement support among black voters. Recent polls in the state, where African Americans will make up the majority of voters tomorrow, put Ms Clinton as far as 28 points clear of her rival, Bernie Sanders. But not everyone is convinced by her attempt to embrace the issues at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement.
GildaCobb-Hunter, the first black woman to be elected to the state government in South Carolina, has said she is concerned that Ms Clinton’s decision to include the relatives of one of the so-called Charleston Nine in a campaign advert meant the deaths were being used for political purposes. The advert features the Rev Anthony Thompson, whose wife, Myra, was among those shot and killed last June.
This week, a young activist, Ashley Williams, confronted the former Secretary of State at a rally and demanded to know why she had once used the term “super predators” to describe black offenders, and why she supported laws such as the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which is considered to have disproportionately hit African Americans.
Ms Williams, a student from Charlotte, North Carolina, said: “She is inconsistent and she has not explained that inconsistency, and she is not to be trusted unless she explains herself,” she said.
At a rally on Thursday night in North Charleston, close to where the unarmed Walter Scott was shot and killed by a white police officer in a notorious incident last April, Ms Clinton talked of the time she spent with black mothers whose sons had been killed.
Many at the event said they believed Ms Clinton was qualified to lead the country and deliver on a range of issues, including education, jobs, healthcare and gun control.
Montez Aiken, a black police officer, said: “I believe she has done her groundwork. There is no question she will know what to do as president.”