Trump tells NABJ they ‘invited me under false pretenses’
While attending the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, former President Trump pushed back against a question about DEI, saying Vice President Kamala Harris was only promoting one side of her roots.
Yesterday was a fierce test not only for Donald Trump but also for the National Association of Black Journalists.
This organization with the word “journalists” in its name was not doing well in my opinion.
It wasn’t even Trump’s finest moment.
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But I will say this: I don’t buy Trump’s post-game comments that he was at the Chicago rally to appeal to MAGA supporters by picking fights with black people.
Let’s not forget that when Joe Biden was still running for president, Trump was polling the most black support a Republican had in decades, so handing the baton to Kamala Harris clearly upsets that math.
As I saw it, Trump’s perspective was that he was stepping into the lion’s den, knowing he would be questioned negatively but highlighting his efforts, such as funding for historically black colleges and universities, in the hopes of gaining some credit for attending.
Former President Trump’s attendance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference was an awkward one for both him and the organization. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
But there was some pushback on the NABJ side to the opportunity to question the former president, who is the leading Republican candidate.
The group’s co-chairs stepped down as a result of the invitation.
April Ryan, a White House reporter for the Grio who has regularly clashed with Trump, tweeted that the invitation was “an affront to the ideals of this organization and an affront to a Black woman journalist (NABJ’s Journalist of the Year) who has had to defend herself from the wrath of a Republican presidential candidate who is pushing an authoritarian agenda that seeks to destroy our country.”
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There’s no prejudice there, right?
Thus began the panel, which also included Fox’s Harris Faulkner.
ABC’s Rachel Scott made an accusation rather than a question.
Trump’s exchange with ABC’s Rachel Scott read more like a scolding from a senior congressional reporter than a question-and-answer session. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“You’ve made false claims about some of your rivals,” she said. “From Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, you’ve said they weren’t born in the United States, which is not true. You’ve told former congresswomen of color who were U.S. citizens to go back where they came from. You’ve used words like animals and rabbits about black district attorneys. You’ve called black journalists losers and attacked their questions as, quote, stupid and racist. You’ve had dinner with white supremacists at the Mar-a-Lago resort. So my question is, now that you’re asking black supporters to vote for you, why should black voters trust you after you’ve used those words?”
Trump’s response: “First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked such a terrible question. The first question. They don’t even say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ Are you from ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network. And I feel so disgraced because I came here with good feelings. I love the black people of this country.”
Trump also said he was invited under false pretenses because he was told Harris had to attend in person, but after refusing to allow her to attend virtually yesterday, the group changed its mind and allowed her to attend.
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Trump’s biggest gaffe came after another question from Rachel Scott.
“Do you think Vice President Kamala Harris is being considered as a candidate only because she’s a black woman?” she asked.
Trump’s response: “She’s always been Indian and she’s just been advertising her Indian ancestry. I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago, when she became black. And now she wants to be known as black. So I don’t know if she’s Indian or black.”
“She always identified as black. She went to a historically black college,” Scott interjected.
“I respect both people,” Trump said, “but she clearly isn’t, because she’s been Indian all her life. And then all of a sudden she turns around and she’s black.”
Questioning the racial identity of a Black woman who attended Howard University is not the way to win friends in that community.
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But it wasn’t a great day for NABJ either.
Meanwhile, I was scrolling through X the other day (yes, this is part of the job) and within minutes I saw a slew of Harris’ past controversial positions.
“THE ROOT: ‘Should Black People Receive Reparations?’
“Kamala Harris: ‘We Need Some Form of Reparations'”
“Kamala Harris said mandatory gun confiscation was a ‘great idea,’ then said she would implement it by executive order ‘within my first 100 days in office.'”
“Kamala Harris has vowed to keep transgender criminals out of prison as president.”
“Kamala has boasted about her efforts to ensure that all transgender prisoners have access to taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery.”
These were originally posted by the Republican National Committee, the Trump campaign, or conservative groups, but have received surprisingly little media attention.
Unlike Vice President Harris, President Trump has at least shown a willingness to take on the press. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
This may come as a surprise, but I don’t think most voters particularly care about flip-flops. After all, Donald Trump was once a Democrat. He was once pro-abortion. He donated money to Harris when she was a California state representative.
Most Americans want to know what you’ll be doing tomorrow, not what you said four or five years ago.
The mainstream media doesn’t really care, but it helps to explain.
When I interviewed Donald Trump, I asked him why he tried to ban TikTok when he was president but now supports it, and he said that people are free to buy it or not, but that TikTok unfairly helps Facebook, but at least he has a reason.
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Harris has made no effort to do so, partly by not taking questions at all (though she does speak privately to reporters on regular trips), which was a major criticism of the president for reasons that we now more fully understand.
And it gave the Trump campaign an opportunity to refute her provocations about why he wouldn’t agree to debate her.
“It’s been 10 days since Kamala staged a coup to remove evil Joe Biden from the ballot, and she has not given a single interview or press conference… The only logical conclusion is that she is scared.
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“Is Kamala trying to make history as the first major candidate not to take any questions from the press?”
I truly hope that’s not the case.
