Trump Not Only Isn’t Speaking at a Black Church, His Q&A With the Pastor Has Been Heavily Scripted

GOP Nominee Continues to Refuse to Talk With Black Audiences

Donald Trump on Saturday will attend a Detroit Black church, but, in keeping with his long-standing tradition of not addressing Black audiences, will not address members of the congregation directly. Trump has refused to speak to the NAACP and many other African American organizations, instead attempting to ingratiate himself with Black religious leaders, using them as props for his presidential aspirations.

Saturday will be no different.

After the service, which Trump is expected to attend for only a few minutes, he will give a private interview with the church’s pastor, who happens to have his own religious cable TV network. That interview will be televised a week or so later.

But as The New York Times reports Thursday night, the interview has been scripted. Heavily scripted.

Noting that the Trump campaign “is leaving nothing to chance,” the Times reports the questions have been submitted in advance, and “instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign has prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things.”

The Times was able to obtain an eight-page draft script which “shows 12 questions that Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, the church’s pastor, intends to ask Mr. Trump during the taped question-and-answer session, as well as the responses Mr. Trump is being advised to give” on such questions as “police killings, racial tension and the perception among many black voters that he and the Republican Party are racist, among other topics.”

An unnamed “official who has been involved in the planning,” the Times notes, “said the Trump campaign was uncomfortable with the candidate speaking before the congregation and insisted instead on the private interview.”

The Times published an excerpt of some of the questions and answers. They have until Saturday afternoon – perhaps they can make Trump’s answers better, because, frankly, they’re terrible.

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license