Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick

Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick, right, tweeted this photo of himself next to Rev. Jesse Jackson at the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. on Sept. 26, 2016.

(Twitter | @SvanteMyrick)

A Central New York mayor is responding to Donald Trump's comments about race and birtherism during the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.

Moderator Lester Holt asked about the Republican candidate's years-long claims that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Trump finally admitted Obama was born in the U.S. last week, then accused Clinton of starting the birther movement.

"I say nothing. I say nothing because I was able to get him to produce [his birth certificate]," Trump said Monday at Hofstra University in New York. The White House released Obama's birth records in 2011.

"It can't be dismissed that easily," Clinton argued at the debate. "[Trump] has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president was not an American citizen."

"I think that I developed very, very good relationships over the last little while with the African American community," Trump said. "I think you can see that."

When asked about recent police shootings across the United States, Trump called for "law and order" to fight "gangs roaming the streets."

"African Americans and Hispanics are living in hell. You walk down the street and you get shot," Trump said. "African American communities are being decimated by crime."

Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick objected strongly to Trump's statements.

"As a black man and the head of a police department - Trump on race relations and the police is disgusting. He doesn't know a thing," Myrick wrote on Twitter Monday night. "Trump didn't believe Obama wasn't born in America. He never asked about any other president. Why? Obama is black. Period."

Myrick, who was elected New York's youngest-ever mayor at 24 years old in 2011 and re-elected last year, also tweeted: "My name is Svante. I'm an African-American and I don't live in hell." He added the hashtag #ImWithHer, supporting the fellow Democrat in the upcoming election.

Clinton argued that violent crime has decreased nationally. Fortune reports the former secretary of state advocated restoring trust between authorities and citizens while promising to "tackle the plague of gun violence."

My name is Svante. I'm an African-American and I don't live in hell. #ImWithHer https://t.co/PTDMiHI4qq — Mayor Svante Myrick (@SvanteMyrick) September 27, 2016

Lester Holt: What do you say to black people in America.



Trump: I say nothing.



That's the truest thing he's said all night. #ImWithHer — Mayor Svante Myrick (@SvanteMyrick) September 27, 2016