Donald Trump tells Hispanics: ‘You’re going to be very happy with president Trump’ in first filmed address
The presidential candidate had previously labelled Mexicans as drug-dealers and rapists
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump's first filmed address to Hispanic Christian voters was stylistically less conventional than that of his rival Hillary Clinton.
Filmed by mobile phone, held vertically, with poor sound quality, the presumptive nominee sat at a table on his plane, reading from bullet points on a sheet of paper.
Near the end of the two-minute video, he almost dropped his paper to the floor.
Using language reminiscent of a hotel manager welcoming guests, he said: “National Hispanic Christian, three great words. We are going to take care of you, we are going to work with you, you are going to be very happy, you are going to like president Trump.”
His address comes before the country's largest Hispanic evangelical conference, attended by about 1,200 religious leaders.
Mr Trump also stressed the need to curb illegal immigrants, drug trafficking and battle unsafe communities which are “unfair to Hispanics, and frankly to everybody else”, and added: “You’re going to start paying taxes after you’re making a lot of money, and that’s hopefully going to be soon.”
A Fox News Latino poll released on Friday revealed that 62 per cent of Hispanics would vote for Ms Clinton while just 23 per cent would vote for Mr Trump.
A total of 74 per cent of Hispanics have a negative view of him; and 41 per cent feel unfavourably about her.
Ms Clinton also released a video to address the conference, standing in front of a world map and speaking from a teleprompter. The two videos were shared by conference leaders with Bloomberg.
She took the opportunity to remind Hispanics that her rival had accused them of being murderers, rapists and drug-dealers.
“We're hearing some divisive and dangerous rhetoric in this election,” said Ms Clinton. “We have a candidate who wants to tear families apart and forcibly deport 11 million undocumented immigrants; who calls Mexicans rapists; who talks about banning Muslims from entering the country. That is not who we are as a people.”
Ms Clinton said she has always been a “person of faith” and wished the viewers “God speed” as she signed off.
Samuel Rodriguez, who is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren last week: “Can Donald Trump redeem the narrative? I'm a pastor. I do believe in miracles but, boy, this would be a miracle.”
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