Trump: Black Pastors Likely Pressured to Back Off Endorsement

Donald Trump on Monday speculated that members of the Black Lives Matter movement pressured a group of black pastors not to endorse him after his campaign originally touted the support of 100 African-American religious leaders.
“Probably some of the Black Lives Matter folks called them up and said, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be meeting with Trump because he believes that all lives matter,'” Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I believe black lives do matter, but I believe all lives matter very strongly.”
Last week, Trump’s campaign released a statement announcing an endorsement from a coalition of 100 black pastors, which he planned to officially unveil after meeting with the group in Trump Tower in New York City on Monday.

But some of the black pastors planning to attend the meeting pushed back on the notion it was an endorsement, prompting Trump’s campaign to cancel a news conference after the meeting.
“I have a great relationship with the black pastors. I know many of them. We’ll see what happens. I don’t know if it’s an endorsement…I think probably it will be an endorsement by some,” Trump said.
Darrell Scott, one of the religious leaders who helped organize the meeting with Trump, told the Associated Press it was a “miscommunication.”
A letter published last week in Ebony magazine from leading black religious leaders asked those attending the meeting: “By siding with a presidential candidate whose rhetoric pathologizes Black people, what message are you sending to the world about the Black lives in and outside of your congregations?”
The cancelled press conference is the latest embarrassing hiccup for Trump’s campaign when it comes to the issue of race relations. A black protester at a Trump event was assaulted earlier this month. Trump later said, “Maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”