Washington: Republican nominee Donald Trump will return to Phoenix next week, but campaign staffers now say he won’t be delivering a speech outlining his immigration policy there.
Campaign officials had confirmed earlier on Wednesday that Trump would touch on the topic of immigration during his speech in Phoenix on August 31 but Arizona campaign chair Brian Seitchik said later that the event would instead be a Republican unity rally. The campaign blamed a “staff error.”
Trump has been working to soften the harsh tone on immigration that became a hallmark of his primary campaign. He had scheduled a speech on immigration in Colorado for Thursday but cancelled it.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is defending her family’s charitable foundation and calling an Associated Press report about meetings involving donors “absurd,” and “a lot of smoke, no fire.”
Clinton said in an interview with CNN that the AP report “looked at a small portion of my time” as secretary of state and drew the conclusion that her meetings with Nobel Prize winners were connected to the foundation rather than their work as global leaders.
“That is absurd,” Clinton concluded.
An AP report on Tuesday found that more than half of the non-government officials who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money to the Clinton Foundation. Combined, the donors contributed as much as $156 million (Dh572.83 million) to the charity.
Trump is declaring that Clinton “is a bigot” in his latest outreach to minority voters.
The Republican presidential nominee drew loud cheers from a crowd in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday when he declared that Democrats have taken minorities’ support for granted.
He said of his Democratic opponent, “Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of colour only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.”
Trump also gave a vague preview of his new immigration policy, which is slated to be unveiled next week. He said any immigration policy he supports must pass three tests: It should improve the wages, safety and quality of life for US citizens.
He offered no specifics.
Trump is also linking his “movement to take back the country” to Britain’s surprising vote to leave the European Union.
He invited Nigel Farage, an architect of Britain’s successful ‘Brexit’ campaign, to join him on stage at a rally on Wednesday night in Jackson, Mississippi.
Farage is outgoing head of the United Kingdom Independence Party. He said “anything is possible” if enough people band together, and predicted that Trump’s presidential campaign would “smash the establishment.”
Farage noted that his movement was an underdog in public opinion polls but triumphed in Britain’s June 23 referendum. He predicted that Trump, who supported Britain’s departure from the European Union, would stage a comeback and win in November.
Trump called Farage’s appearance an honour and said, “The nation’s working people will take control again.”
Meanwhile, the White House is firing back at Senator Mark Kirk for his comment that President Barack Obama was “acting like the drug dealer in chief” when the administration made a $400 million cash payment to Iran.
The Illinois Republican criticised Obama over the payment, which was contingent on the release of American prisoners. Kirk’s campaign has said the administration’s actions are “almost certain to fund terrorism”.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday that Kirk’s rhetoric is inconsistent with how most people in Illinois view Obama’s efforts to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Earnest says it’s tempting for candidates “to say outrageous things to try to get attention,” but “that’s certainly no way to run a country.”
Kirk faces a difficult re-election challenge from Democratic representative Tammy Duckworth.
