Republican presidential front-runner Donald J. Trump on Monday blamed the Black Lives Matter movement for likely scaring off black pastors from endorsing him.
Mr. Trump cancelled a planned press event where a coalition of black pastors and religious leaders were supposed to endorse him, with a group of black leaders opposing the event and some of the attendees claimed they never promised an endorsement.
“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,’” Mr. Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
He said he still expects to receive endorsements form some of the black religious leaders.
The Black Lives Matter movement has been protesting against racial injustice and police shootings of unarmed black citizens. The demonstrators also have targeted Republican and Democratic presidential campaign events.
The Trump campaign announced the event with the pastors last week, saying the billionaire businessman would hold a press conference at Trump Tower in New York to announce endorsements by “a coalition of 100 African American Evangelical pastors and religious leaders.”
The press conference was to follow a private meeting.
Mr. Trump said in a tweet Sunday that the press conference was cancelled.
“Will be meeting on Monday at Trump Tower with a large group of African American Pastors. Many I know-wonderful people! Not a press event,” he tweeted.
Prior to the change of plans, 114 academics and church leaders wrote an open letter published on the website of Ebony Magazine that warned the pastors against meeting with Mr. Trump.
“We are concerned that your choice to meet with Mr. Trump, particularly in such a visible way, will not only de-radicalize the Black prophetic political tradition, but will also give Trump the appearance of legitimacy among those who follow your leadership and respect your position as clergy,” the letter said.
It continued: “Trump’s racially inaccurate, insensitive and incendiary rhetoric should give those charged with the care of the spirits and souls of Black people great pause.”
Meanwhile, some of the pastors invited to the event said they had no intention of endorsing Mr. Trump, blaming the campaign’s original announcement on a mixup.
“It’s a miscommunication,” Darrell Scott, the senior pastor of New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who who has helped to arrange meetings between Mr. Trump and black pastors in recent months, told The Associated Press.
He said that Trump’s campaign “thought it was going to be a press conference for an endorsement when it wasn’t.”
The situation with the black pastors is the latest misstep by Mr. Trump. He is weathering criticism for apparently mocking a disabled New York Times reporter and for claiming that thousands of of Muslim Americans in New Jersey cheered as the World Trade Center towers collapsed on 9/11.
Still, Mr. Trump’s poll numbers remain unshaken as he continues to lead the GOP field in national and early-voting state polls.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.