Trump: "I Have a Great Relationship with the Blacks"

"I have a great relationship with the blacks," Donald Trump said on an Albany, N.Y. radio station Thursday morning. "I've always had a very great relationship with the blacks. But unfortunately, it seems the numbers that you cite are very, very frightening numbers."

The numbers Trump is referring to are part of a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday. It shows 95 percent of black voters in New York State approve of how Barack Obama is handling his job as president. Only 4 percent do not. In sharp contrast, of white voters polled, 42 percent approve of the job the president is doing, while 53 percent do not.

Talk 1300 radio host Fred Dicker, who is also the state editor for New York Post (owned by News Corp), brought up the poll and asked Trump if dramatic differences in American attitudes toward the president are race based.

"I think it's a pretty sad poll when you see that," Trump said, pointing to the 2008 election outcome. "When you look at Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton did so much for the black population, so much, and she got very few votes."

"One would always hope that votes are on the basis of merit," Dicker responded, "Not on race or anything."

"If that were the case," Trump asked, "Why did Hillary Clinton do so poorly?"

The entire interview can be heard here.