WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. presidential campaign (all times EDT):
10:35 a.m.
Boxing promoter Don King is praising Donald Trump as “the only gladiator” who can take on a system that King said is “rigged” and “racist” and “sexist.”
King introduced the Republican presidential nominee to a group of pastors in Cleveland on Wednesday.
King said white women and African-Americans should vote for Trump to topple the established order.
He wore a bejeweled denim jacket and held American and Israeli national flags.
King has long supported his friend Trump, but the appearance Wednesday marks his highest-profile appearance on the Republican nominee’s behalf. King wanted to speak at the Republican National Convention in July. But GOP officials kept him off the stage, in part to avoid a focus on his manslaughter conviction in the 1960s.
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9:55 a.m.
Donald Trump is calling for unity after the shootings of black men in two cities.
The Republican nominee tweeted Wednesday: “The situations in Tulsa and Charlotte are tragic. We must come together to make America safe again.”
Terence Crutcher was unarmed when he was shot alongside his vehicle in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Keith Lamont Scott was shot Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Officers say he was armed. But a woman claiming to be Scott’s daughter said in an online post that he was unarmed. The shooting prompted a demonstration that injured about a dozen police officers.
Trump tweeted: “Hopefully the violence & unrest in Charlotte will come to an immediate end. To those injured, get well soon. We need unity & leadership.”
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7:30 a.m.
Mike Pence is defending Donald Trump against new criticism of how the Republican presidential hopeful used his charitable foundation.
The vice presidential nominee told NBC’s Brian Williams in an interview broadcast late Tuesday that he’s confident the Trump Foundation will be able to “demonstrate that they fully complied with the law.”
The Washington Post on Tuesday reported Trump used money the foundation had raised to pay legal settlements for which he was personally liable. Such transactions, the newspaper reported, could violate federal tax laws against using charities for “self-dealing.”
The report was based on interviews and legal documents.
Pence told NBC there are “a number of factual errors in that story.” Pressed on what those errors are, Pence said he things “the foundation will be able to lay those out.”
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7:25 a.m.
Donald Trump is continuing his attempted outreach to African-American voters as he and running mate Mike Pence meet with a group of pastors Wednesday in Cleveland.
The gathering will be held at the church of the Rev. Darrell Scott, an early supporter of the Republican presidential nominee. Scott has sometimes traveled with Trump during the campaign and spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention in July.
Aides say Pence will introduce Trump, who will speak and then take questions from Scott.
Polls show Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with a wide advantage among black voters. African-Americans could prove crucial in several battlegrounds states, including Ohio.
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4:25 a.m.
Donald Trump’s appeal to black voters sounds familiar in Gary, Indiana, and not in a good way.
In 1993, Trump swooped into Gary on his private jet and pledged to make the down-on-its-luck city great again with a riverboat casino along a Lake Michigan shoreline littered with shuttered factories.
Little more than a decade later Trump’s company declared bankruptcy, leaving behind lawsuits and hard feelings in the majority-black city.
Trump’s lawyers later argued in court that his pledges to Gary were never legally binding.
Looking back, Trump tells The Associated Press that his venture worked out well for Gary.
But a Democratic former Gary city councilman, Roy Pratt, calls Trump a “slick business dealer” and says, “He got as much as he could and then he pulled up and left.”
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(Photo Source: PR Photos)
