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Chabot: Trump Should Have Come to NAACP Convention

U.S. House of Representatives
Credit U.S. House of Representatives

CLEVELAND – U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, the Westwood Republican, has no problem with Donald J. Trump as his party's standard bearer.

But he believes the man who will almost certainly officially become the GOP's nominee tonight at Quicken Loans Arena should have accepted the NAACP's invitation to speak at its annual convention this week in Cincinnati.

"I think it would have been the right thing for him to do; it would have helped his candidacy too,'' the Westwood Republican told WVXU.

Trump certainly should have accepted the NAACP invitation, Chabot said, because his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, spoke to the group Monday at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

"I understand he's busy; he's preparing to be nominated as the Republican Party's candidate for president, and that would keep anybody busy,'' Chabot said. "I think it was a real mistake."

Chabot himself made a speech to the group Sunday night – right before Ohio Gov. John Kasich addressed the NAACP crowd.

"It was a good experience,'' Chabot said. "I think Trump should have been there." 

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Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU News Team after 30 years of covering local and state politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio governor’s race since 1974 as well as 12 presidential nominating conventions. His streak continued by covering both the 2012 Republican and Democratic conventions for 91.7 WVXU. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots; the Lucasville Prison riot in 1993; the Air Canada plane crash at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983; and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. The Cincinnati Reds are his passion. "I've been listening to WVXU and public radio for many years, and I couldn't be more pleased at the opportunity to be part of it,” he says.