The boxing promoter seemed to utter the racial epithet by accident after encouraging white women to vote for the ‘doctor of humanness’ on Wednesday

As Donald Trump continued his attempts to reach out to African American voters, boxing promoter Don King used the N-word in introducing him at a church in Cleveland on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Midwest Vision and Values Pastors Leadership Conference hosted by longtime Trump ally Dr Darrell Scott, King used the term seemingly by accident while attempting to use “negro” as a replacement.

“I told Michael Jackson, I said, ‘If you are poor, you are a poor negro,’” he said. “I would use the N-word. But if you are rich, you are a rich negro. If you are intelligent, intellectual, you’re an intellectual negro. If you are a dancing and sliding and gliding nigger – I meant negro – you’re a dancing and sliding and gliding negro. So dare not alienate because you cannot assimilate.”

The use of the racial epithet led to awkward laughter from Trump and other audience members.

King’s use of the term followed bizarre meandering remarks in which he argued that “every white woman should vote for Donald Trump” and praised the Republican nominee as “a doctor of humanness” and as “the only gladiator”. The boxing promoter, convicted of killing two men in separate incidents in the 1950s and 60s, bemoaned the media’s treatment of Trump, saying: “They vet him like he’s a politician.

“When the system was created, they did not give her, the white woman did not have her rights and she still does not have her rights,” he said. “Donald ... when I see them try to ridiculize him, or when they try to ostracize ... I want you to understand that every white woman should vote for Donald Trump ... to knock out the system.”

Trump followed King, praising the boxing promoter, who served four years for manslaughter and invoked his fifth amendment constitutional rights when asked about his ties to John Gotti in 1992, as someone who “took advantage of a lot of situations”.

King had reportedly been considered to speak at July’s Republican national convention by Trump before his appearance onstage was vetoed by party chair Reince Priebus.

Trump claims African American communities are in 'worst shape ever' Read more

In his remarks, Trump struck themes that have become familiar in his attempts to win over African American voters. He argued that inner cities were less safe than Afghanistan and asked black voters: “What have you got to lose?” Trump’s polling numbers among African Americans are usually in the low single figures.

Trump has been trying to reach out to African American voters in recent weeks and is holding a televised town hall on the subject with Fox News’s Sean Hannity airing Wednesday evening, which was scheduled to be taped earlier in the day.

In an extract released on Wednesday afternoon, Trump came out in favor of a nationwide stop and frisk program. “I would do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to,” said the Republican nominee. “We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well and you have to be proactive and, you know, you really help people sort of change their mind automatically, you understand, you have to have, in my opinion, I see what’s going on here, I see what’s going on in Chicago, I think stop-and-frisk.”

Stop and frisk, the practice of New York police officers to stop passersby, question them and check for weapons, was found unconstitutional by a federal judge in 2013 who held it to be illegal racial profiling.

The Republican nominee faces a number of obstacles with African American voters, a traditionally Democratic demographic, including his longstanding insistence, seemingly dropped last week, that Barack Obama was not born in the US, and a history of housing discrimination lawsuits against Trump-owned real estate projects. He is hoping to overcome this with his message about jobs.

The Republican nominee also answered a question from Scott about the police shooting on Friday of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Crutcher was an unarmed African American who had his hands up.

Trump, who is running as a self-proclaimed “law and order” candidate, suggested that the officer involved “choked”.

The Republican nominee said that after watching the video, “to me, it looked he did everything you’re supposed to do and he looked like a really good man”.

He added: “This young officer, I don’t know what she was thinking ... but I am very troubled by that. These things are terrible, in my opinion.” He went on to ask: “Did she get scared? Was she choking? Maybe people like that, people that choke, they can’t be doing what they are doing.”

Additional reporting by Tom McCarthy in New York