Double-gloved outreach

IANACM (I am not a campaign manager), but it seems to me that if allowing a candidate near African-Americans requires the level of planning normally associated with an organ transplant, then that is a tacit admission that the candidate is some white sheets and a couple of 2x4s away from being a one-man Klavern.

Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things.

IANABP (behavioral psychologist) but I would recommend the use of painful electric shocks. Just because.

An eight-page draft script obtained by The New York Times shows 12 questions that Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, the pastor, intends to ask Mr. Trump in the taped question-and-answer session, as well as the responses Mr. Trump is being advised to give.

[…]

The official said the answers could change based on feedback from the black Republicans they are consulting with.

After this article was published online Thursday night, Jason Miller, the senior communications adviser for the Trump campaign, said that Mr. Trump’s plans had changed and that he would address the congregation for five to 10 minutes after the interview. Mr. Trump will then visit neighborhoods with Ben Carson, a onetime campaign rival, who supports Mr. Trump and grew up in Detroit.

I wonder if they considered hiring an actor to imitate Trump? Probably, but due to a financial constraint known as not having any money (that Trump is willing to part with), they could only afford the little fella on the right.

It is not uncommon for a candidate to request interview questions in advance; aides to Hillary Clinton do it from time to time. But it is unusual for a campaign to go so far as to prepare a script for a candidate’s own responses, and highlights the sensitivity of Mr. Trump’s first appearance at a black church. A series of slights, including his questioning of President Obama’s birth certificate, has not endeared him to black voters.

Ah, good. I was worried the article would end without some bothsidesism, pro-Trump spin and grotesque understatement.

The interview will air about a week later on the Impact Network, Bishop Jackson’s Christian cable TV channel. The official said several Trump aides would work with the network to edit the taped interview so that the final version reflected the campaign’s wishes. (On Thursday night, Mr. Miller said the campaign would not edit the interview.)

The final cut would have been Trump talking intercut with one five second clip of Bishop Jackson laughing.

The arrangements had angered several black Republicans, who urged Mr. Trump, widely seen as distant from the black community, to speak for at least 10 minutes at the service, the official involved in the planning said. The official added that the campaign had been uncomfortable with Mr. Trump’s speaking before the congregation and had insisted on a private interview.

Someone is nervous about an event where Trump’s volunteer mob o’ goons won’t be present to keep any uppity folks in line perhaps?

But at this point it would be less embarrassing if Team T-Rump photoshopped a picture of Trump in front of an audience of smiling African-Americans and admitted it was a doctored image, created solely for the purpose of giving the little noddy dogs of the press an excuse to say Don T is making sincere overtures to la communauté noir.

Mr. Trump is well known for veering from prepared remarks or throwing them away entirely. That could happen on Saturday: Many of the answers being prepared for him do not sound much like Mr. Trump as his usual self.

When asked about his vision for black Americans, the script suggests that Mr. Trump stay positive, advising that he use lines such as “If we are to make America great again, we must reduce, rather than highlight, issues of race in this country” and “I want to make race disappear as a factor in government and governance.”

That will pass through the wad of dried rubber cement between Trump’s ears and come out “Black people love me, I’ll make them disappear, it’ll be beautiful; the greatest.”