The Greene County Democrat

Tag: NAACP

  • Hillary Clinton goes on attack against Donald Trump in NAACP speech

    BY LISA L. COLANGELO
    NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

    Hillary Clinton addresses NAACP

    Hillary Clinton
    addresses NAACP

    Hillary Clinton made it clear Monday she isn’t about to let the GOP cast Donald Trump in a softer light at the Republican National Convention.

    During an emotional speech before the NAACP’s national conference in Ohio, Clinton painted her likely Republican opponent as a President Obama-hating, white supremacist sympathizer who was once investigated for refusing to rent apartments to African-Americans.
    “He might say otherwise if he were here, but of course he declined your invitation,” Clinton told members of the historic civil rights group. “So all we can go on is what he has said and done in the past.”
    Her comments come as Republicans are expected to launch a wave of attacks against her as part of the first day of the convention’s theme: “Keep America Safe Again.”
    Clinton, who is poised to receive the Democratic nomination for President next week, kicked off an aggressive campaign to register 3 million new voters in the coming weeks.
    “This man is the nominee of the party of Lincoln and we are watching it become the party of Trump,” she said to cheers. “That is not just a huge loss to our democracy, it is a threat to our democracy. … Donald Trump cannot become President of the United States.”
    Her voter registration campaign will include 500 events at diverse locations including minor league baseball games, college campuses and hair salons.
    “Your votes count more than ever,” Clinton told the crowd.
    Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference, tried to head off GOP criticism by lauding Clinton’s service as Secretary of State.
    “She strengthened national security, championed human rights and opportunities for women and girls across the world,” Dukes said. “She was instrumental in restoring American standing in the world.”

  • NAACP president: Trump ‘kind of Jim Crow with hairspray and a blue suit’

    By Ashley Young, CNN

     

    NAACP President William Cornell Brooks

    NAACP President
    Cornell William Brooks

    (CNN)NAACP President Cornell William Brooks on Monday condemned Republican front-runner Donald Trump and said he represents a “kind of Jim Crow with hairspray and a blue suit.”
    “The fact of the matter is this is hateful. It is racist. It is bigoted. It is xenophobic. It represents a kind of Jim Crow with hairspray and a blue suit,” Brooks told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.” “Let’s not underestimate what we’re dealing with.  This is a very, very ugly moment in America.”
    But Brooks said he doesn’t hold anything against
    Americans who support Trump. “I don’t blame the people –- American citizens — for their economic anxieties and a sense of desperation. The fact that their grasping at straws and they grasped onto a bigoted, demagogic  billionaire speaks to their desperation, not necessarily his appeal or the strength of his platform,” he said.
    CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment, with no response.
    The billionaire’s rallies have turned increasingly violent in the past week as supporters have clashed with protesters. Trump was forced to cancel a rally in Chicago over the weekend and was given a scare when a protester rushed the stage Saturday.
    And a former Breitbart reporter filed an assault charge against Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, alleging he yanked her violently from Trump last Tuesday.
    “The fact of the matter is he’s engaged in rhetoric that represents a kind of apologetics, if you will, of violence,” Brooks said.
    Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina said Monday they are weighing whether to press charges against Trump for inciting a riot during that rally where the protester was sucker punched by a 78-year-old white man. Trump has said he is considering paying the legal fees for the supporter charged with assault.
    Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks flatly rejected the premise of the investigation into Trump’s role in the violent altercation.”It is the protesters and agitators who are in violation, not Mr. Trump or the campaign,” Hicks said Monday in a statement.
    Hicks added that Trump’s speech was “extremely well thought out and well received” and instead focused on the role of protesters, who she said “in some cases … used foul language, screamed vulgarities and made obscene gestures, annoying the very well behaved audience.”
    Brooks believes Trump’s behavior is “contemptible” but will “leave that for the prosecutors in North Carolina to determine.” He added there “absolutely” is a racial aspect to business mogul’s increasingly violent rallies.
    “When you call Mexicans rapists, when you use code words like ‘thug,’ where you suddenly can’t distance yourself from the Klan. The fact of the matter is we’ve been in this ugly movie before. In the 1920s the Klan combined an anti-immigrant sentiment in the country with a kind of un-American patriotism with a venue of Christianity,” Brooks said.
    Blitzer pointed out that Trump eventually did disavow the Klu Klux Klan.