After alienating various minority groups during the Republican primary, Donald Trump has been faced with the reality that he can't win the presidency with support from only white conservatives. As part of his latest campaign shake-up, Trump has attempted to appeal to African-American voters, but his efforts have been met with criticism.

Trump's latest pitch

Earlier this month, Trump replaced his campaign manager and chief executive, who have since tried to reboot the campaign's message. Over the last week and a half, the billionaire real estate mogul has made a point to focus on the black community during his campaign speeches.

The former host of "The Apprentice" has been criticized for sticking to poorly labeled stereotypes, like black Americans being poor with no jobs, while also avoiding areas where the population is predominantly African-American. This issue was highlighted during a CNN panel discussion on August 25.

Joining the panel was network contributor and Trump surrogate Kayleighn McEnany. Known to find herself in controversial situations in the past, McEnany once again was left defenseless after she referenced Martin Luther King Jr. in her defense of Trump.

"Like Martin Luther King said, we have to learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools," McEnany said, before criticizing Hillary Clinton's recent speech in the process.

Quickly chiming in was Guy Cecil, a fellow panel guest and a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter. "I always enjoy when a Trump supporter wants to ignore his record and then quote Martin Luther King,”Cecil sarcastically said to the chuckle of the other panel members.

Cecil went on to list various examples of Trump's actions against African-Americans and others that King would never have thought twice about, including preventing blacks from renting apartments, to bad mouthing Hispanics and Muslims.

Attempting to shift the conversation away from Trump's laundry list of controversy, McEnany accused Cecil of being "what's wrong with the election." Not holding back, Cecil went on to cite a Quinnipiac poll that was recently released, showing that six out of 10 potential voters think that Trump has brought bigotry into the election

Current impact

Trump's latest focus on black voters comes at a time when he also suggested that he could "soften" his stance on illegal immigration, likely due to his low poll numbers with key minority voting blocs.

The latest rolling average from Real Clear Politics has Trump down seven points to Clinton, as he's also slipping in swing states. Updated projected electoral maps have Clinton winning by over 100 electoral votes, a number Trump must reverse with Election Day just under 80 days away.
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