PITTSBURGH -- Donald Trump said Thursday that drugs played "a very, very big factor" in violent protests that broke out in North Carolina overnight. He warned black protesters that their anger was creating suffering in their own communities.

"The people who will suffer the most as a result of these riots are law-abiding African-American residents who live in these communities where the crime is so rampant," Trump declared at an energy conference in Pittsburgh. He added, "Drugs are a very, very big factor in what you're watching on television at night."

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, said he was not referring to Charlotte or the broader protest movement.

"He wasn't talking about Charlotte specifically," Conway said. "As he has done in many different venues on many different occasions, he is addressing a major concern that authorities and moms all across the country are raising with him, which is indiscriminate drug use and opiate addiction."

Before turning to the topic at hand -- energy -- Trump said he first wanted to address "the turmoil unfolding right now in our country."

"We have some real problems, and we do have a wounded country," he said. "Many Americans are watching the unrest in Charlotte unfolding right before their eyes on the TV screens. Others are witnessing the chaos and the violence firsthand."

He also worried aloud whether the protests and unrest had diminished the nation's international standing.

"Our country looks bad to the world, especially when we are supposed to be the world's leader -- how can we lead when we can't even control our own cities?" Trump said. "We honor and recognize the right for all Americans to peacefully assemble and protest and demonstrate. But there is no right to engage in violent disruption or to threaten the public safety and peace of others."

Democrat Hillary Clinton did not address the protests on Thursday as she prepared for her first debate with Trump. The pair will meet Monday for their first televised showdown.

In an interview released Thursday on comic Zach Galifianakis' Web program, Between Two Ferns, Clinton dinged her opponent, albeit in a humorous way.

The comedian asked her what Trump might wear to Monday's debate.

"I assume he'll wear that red power tie," Clinton said. Galifianakis responded, "Or maybe like a white power tie."

"That's even more appropriate," Clinton said.

Both candidates are working to navigate the politics of race with Election Day less than seven weeks away and early voting about to begin in some states.

On Thursday, Trump called for a nation united in "the spirit of togetherness."

"We all have to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, see things through their eyes, and then get to work fixing our very wounded country," he said.

The message was complicated by his call earlier in the day for Chicago to adopt "stop and frisk" policing tactics that have been condemned as racial profiling.

In an interview on Fox & Friends, Trump asserted his general support for the policy -- "They'll stop, they'll frisk, and they'll take the gun away, and they won't have anything to shoot with," Trump said on Fox -- and he reiterated that support during his speech Thursday in Pittsburgh.

"Look at the example we had in New York of Mayor Rudy Giuliani," Trump said, saying that the stop-and-frisk policies, which were instituted during Giuliani's tenure as mayor, had helped curb murder and other crimes in the city. "Think of how many families these policies saved from the worst heartache imaginable."

But Trump also tried to strike a more inclusive, conciliatory note, speaking of the "law-abiding African-American residents who live in these communities" and "suffer the most as a result of these riots." He called for more law enforcement, more community engagement and "more effective policing."

"Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the violent disrupter, but to make life more comfortable for the African-American parent trying to raise their kids in peace, to walk their children to school and to get their children great educations," he said. "For every one violent protester, there are thousands of moms and dads and kids in that same community who just want to be able to sleep."

Trump said new leadership is required to address the situation.

"This is a national crisis," he said without mentioning the black men shot by police in recent days. He said that "it's the job of the next president of the United States to work with our governors and mayors to address this crisis and save African-American lives."

Trump's speeches came a day after he gave a brief interview with an Ohio television station, during which he was asked why, after years of saying President Barack Obama was born outside the country, he decided to announce last week that he no longer held that view.

"Well, I just wanted to get on with, you know, we want to get on with the campaign," the GOP nominee responded.

"And a lot of people were asking me questions. And you know, we want to talk about jobs, we want to talk about the military," he added. "So we really want to get just back onto the subject of jobs, military, taking care of our vets, et cetera."

Trump for five years had raised questions and insinuations about the president's birthplace and the authenticity of his birth certificate.

Last week, Trump declared at a campaign event, "President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period."

Clinton's campaign said in a statement that Trump's answer was proof that he had only voiced his reversal to try to change the subject.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, Trump's Mahoning County campaign Chairman Kathy Miller, a volunteer, came under fire after telling The Guardian newspaper, "I don't think there was any racism until Obama got elected."

The Trump campaign accepted her resignation after what a spokesman called "inappropriate" comments.

Information for this article was contributed by Steve Peoples, Jill Colvin, Jason Keyser and Julie Carr Smyth of The Associated Press and by Ashley Parker of The New York Times.

A Section on 09/23/2016