Mr. Shaman
Seer
February 16, 2016 - "As the "birther" controversy swelled around him, he stood before a national television audience seemingly poised to address the issue that launched his political career -- and then he spent 30 minutes delivering an infomercial about his new hotel. As the event was about to wrap, he tossed out a near-throwaway line: "President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period."
Whatever game Trump was playing with the issue in the past few days, it backfired.
Trump never had much of a chance with African-American voters. They are traditionally among the most loyal Democratic supporters, and many black voters viewed Trump's championing of the birther movement since 2011 as a racist effort to delegitimize the first African-American president.
But for weeks, the real estate has been trying to appeal to African-Americans with visits to Detroit and Flint, Michigan, as well as speeches accusing the Obama administration of leaving too many black Americans behind in poverty or without good-paying jobs.
Those entreaties, in many cases, seemed to backfire. This week, he insulted a black pastor from Flint as a "nervous mess" after she interrupted his speech to ask him not to deliver political attacks in her church.
And given the animosity toward Trump among African-Americans, the campaign's strategy seemed more keyed to assuaging concerns among some Republican voters and independents that Trump's rhetoric is racist.
The strategy of softening Trump's image among reluctant Republicans and independents showed some signs that it was working. This week, Trump's poll numbers inched up in battleground states, and the Clinton-Trump race nationally was deadlocked once again.
But Trump's curious moves Thursday night and Friday were a reminder of how quickly his effort can go off the rails.
Black congressional leaders, along with Clinton's campaign, pilloried Trump's brief statement on Obama's birthplace -- which was not an apology, an explanation or even an admission that he was the loudest promoter of the birther movement.
At a press conference, member of the Congressional Black Caucus urged voters to register and get out and vote this November.
"We are used to dog whistles, but the thing we are not used to are the howls of wolves. These are howls, not whistles," said Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina.
Moreover, Trump was widely derided Friday for his false claim that "Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy" and that "I finished it."
Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, called Trump's actions "disgraceful."
"After five years of pushing a racist conspiracy theory into the mainstream, it was appalling to watch Trump appoint himself the judge of whether the President of the United States is American," Mook said in a statement. "This sickening display shows more than ever why Donald Trump is totally unfit be president."
