Trump: I'm not homophobic -- evangelicals and Tea Partiers love me!

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump responded to a question about whether he was homophobic on Wednesday by talking about conservative groups.

"I think that I'm a very nice person," Trump told CNN host Don Lemon. "I love people, and I have to tell you, when you look at those polls, it's across the board. You know who loves me? The Tea Party. The evangelicals. I'm leading with evangelicals -- I love them, they love me. I'm Presbyterian, I'm Protestant, and they like me. You know why? Because they think I'm gonna do a great job for the country."

"Some people may perceive you as racist," Lemon later asked. "Answer me that."

"I just did a speech for the African-American Chamber of Commerce of South Carolina," Trump responded. "They just wrote me the most beautiful letter I've gotten in a long time saying how unfairly I got treated by the press."

Trump said he spoke at the event as a favor to "a couple of friends who just happen to be African-American," but then complained that Lemon's network made him "look bad" by showing empty seats at the event.

"I was surrounded by a tremendous amount of people," the candidate said, adding that "the press is very, very unfair."

He also insisted he did nothing wrong by not questioning the unidentified Islamophobic supporter who accused President Barack Obama of being a Muslim earlier this month while complaining about "a problem in our country called Muslims."

"I don't feel I have to defend President Obama," Trump said.

"But some would say you're not defending the president -- you're defending the truth," Lemon countered.

"You're not saying I defended. I didn't respond," Trump said. "It's the first time in my life I've caused controversy by not responding."

Watch the interview, as posted online on Wednesday, below.