NOVI, Mich. _ Donald Trump has been fighting allegations that he is racist by casting himself as a defender of minorities.
But at a rally in the Detroit suburbs Friday, he urged the mostly white crowd to travel to monitor other polling places on Election Day _ a plea that civil rights groups say is code for preventing blacks from voting.
"Make sure it's on the up and up," the Republican presidential nominee told thousands of supporters gathered at an expo center.
In court cases around the country, civil rights groups are arguing that Republicans are using bogus allegations of vote fraud to suppress the black vote on Nov. 8. Trump is least popular in urban centers like Detroit, which is predominantly black.
"Make sure it's on the up and up, because you know what _ that's a big, big problem in this country, and nobody wants to talk about it, nobody has the guts to talk about it," he said at the rally.
If Trump's supporters follow through on his request, legitimate voters could be blocked from the polls, voter rights groups have said. Such intimidation tactics were a hallmark of the Jim Crow era.
It's not the first time Trump has raised the specter of voter intimidation.
Last month, he told a largely white crowd in rural Altoona, Pa., that he was hiring "a lot of law enforcement people" as poll sentinels in Pennsylvania. He said they would "go down to certain areas and watch and study and make sure other people don't come in and vote five times."
What's changed is that Trump has started selling himself as a champion of minorities.
At the Michigan rally, he said his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton had been a disaster for blacks. "They're too smart, and they know they are being used," he said.
He also made this plea: "To the African American community, let me ask this question: Are you better off than you were eight years ago? If not, why not give Donald Trump a chance?"
