STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tried again yesterday to appeal to black voters. He visited a charter school in a predominantly black neighborhood in Cleveland. NPR's Sarah McCammon listened along with some of the voters.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Emmalina Alexander's (ph) son is a fifth-grader at Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy. Neither presidential candidate has won her over. But she came to see what Trump had to say.
EMMALINA ALEXANDER: I am not voting this year. So anyone can grab my vote because I'm not - at this point, I'm not choosing to vote for anyone.
MCCAMMON: Alexander, who's African-American, like most of the parents here, says she's uncomfortable with some of Trump's comments about minorities. But Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton hasn't impressed her either.
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DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.
MCCAMMON: As he took the stage, Trump said he was there to talk about a very important issue - school choice.
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TRUMP: But before we do, I want to briefly discuss new revelations about Hillary Clinton's very famous emails.
MCCAMMON: The real estate developer spent more than a third of the speech going after his rival. He also pushed back on an attack Clinton has made this week. She voted to authorize the Iraq War and says Trump supported it from the beginning but is now falsely claiming he opposed it.
PolitiFact rated Trump's claim false based on statements he made at the time of the invasion. Trump insisted Clinton and the media are overlooking other comments he made criticizing the war after it was well underway.
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TRUMP: So I just wanted to set the record straight.
MCCAMMON: Trump eventually did turn to education, calling for new funding for charter schools, a policy long supported by conservatives. He repeated a theme that's become part of his standard stump speech.
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TRUMP: The Democratic Party has trapped millions of African-American and Hispanic youth in failing government schools that deny them the opportunity to join the ladder of American success.
MCCAMMON: Trump has been talking about crime and failing schools in black communities and asking African-Americans what do you have to lose by supporting him? For Emmalina Alexander, the speech was unconvincing.
ALEXANDER: You can't change someone's opinion for things you've been saying for months or years even. You have to do better.
MCCAMMON: And today, Trump turns his attention to the Republican base with a speech to religious conservatives in Washington, D.C. Sarah McCammon, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
