Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is seeking to show law-and-order toughness along with empathy for African-Americans as he criticizes violent protests stemming from another fatal police shooting of a black man.
His Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, was behind closed doors as she prepared for their initial debate and did not address on Thursday the escalating racial tensions in Charlotte, North Carolina. The city was under a midnight curfew after two previous nights of chaotic protests that led to one death as well as injuries, arrests and vandalism.
Trump has spent the last several weeks asking black Americans for their support and asserting that President Barack Obama has failed the black community, but those appeals have been undermined at times.
On Thursday, the Trump campaign accepted the resignation of an Ohio volunteer, Mahoning County chair Kathy Miller, who told the Guardian newspaper, "I don't think there was any racism until Obama got elected."
