Former President Trump made baseless claims about Vice President Kamala Harris' racial identity during a combative interview at a Black journalism conference on Wednesday, as polls showed his opponent had made significant gains in battleground states.
Trump's question-and-answer session with three journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists' annual convention got heated from the start, with ABC News senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott reciting a series of Trump's incendiary comments, including that former President Obama was not born in the United States, and asking why black voters should trust him.
He responded by criticising Scott for his “embarrassing” start, adding: “I came here in good spirits. I love the black people in this country.”
When Scott asked him about comments from other Republican politicians that Harris was a “DEI hire,” Trump asked him for his definition of DEI. He questioned his response that the acronym stands for “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” before saying of Harris: “She was Indian through and through and all of a sudden she turned around, she became a black person.”
Harris, a Black and Asian woman of Jamaican and Indian descent, was invited to speak at the convention, but her campaign declined due to a scheduling conflict, according to NABJ. The association said it was planning a separate conversation with the vice president in September.
Former President Trump engaged in a combative interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on Wednesday in Chicago.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
“Today’s tirade is simply a testament to the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies throughout this campaign,” Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said Wednesday.
When pressed by the ABC reporter on why black voters should trust him, Trump said he had already answered the question, adding: “I’ve been the best president for black people since Abraham Lincoln.”
Throughout the panel, Trump complained that the interview had started more than an hour late and that the sound system was not working properly. In a reversal, Trump faced a room full of Black journalists, who laughed, gasped or mocked his answers. One aide walked out while questioning Harris’ racial identity, and another shouted, “Sir, have you no shame?”
The audience booed him as he left the stage.
“To the credit of former President Trump, he accepted the invitation, but beyond that, it was a complete disaster,” said Charles Ward, a journalism professor at Morehouse College who attended the session. “Members really thought it would be an opportunity to say something different than what we’ve heard in the campaign, and that was the same today, even though they asked him questions directly about his intentions with the black community and we never got a full answer to that.”
Journalist Roland Martin listens to former President Trump as he speaks in Chicago.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Some Trump supporters saw his performance Wednesday as a test of his tenacity in the face of a hostile crowd.
“President Trump flew to Chicago, answered tough question after tough question from the press, and crushed it. Kamala didn’t have the courage to show up,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley wrote on social media.
Others who watched the interview were put off by Trump's rambling and sometimes abrasive responses.
Hope Moses, a 22-year-old Milwaukee native and graduate student at Northwestern University, said it was important for her to be in the room to testify as a journalism student and young Black voter. Moses said she felt Trump had “gone a little off topic.” She was disturbed to hear the former president acknowledge that he didn’t know the details of the shooting of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Black woman who was fatally shot earlier this month by an Illinois sheriff’s deputy.
“I don’t even remember him offering his condolences and really connecting with the audience and understanding that any one of us could have been her,” Moses said. “Most people in the audience can agree that it was entertaining, but not necessarily informative.”
Trump's appearance sparked controversy before his arrival, with many journalists condemning the organization's decision to invite the former president. Karen Attiah, a columnist and global opinions editor for the Washington Post, announced Tuesday that she would step down as co-chair of the convention.
“While my decision was influenced by a variety of factors, I was not involved in nor consulted in any way regarding the decision to promote Trump in that format,” Attiah said in a social media post.
Immediately after the interview, Trump posted on his Truth Social account: “ABC FAKE NEWS, ONE OF THE WORST IN AMERICA!”
“The rude and biased treatment today by certain hostile members of the media will have very serious consequences,” Trump senior adviser Lynne Patton said in a statement. “You would think the media would have learned something from their repeated bouts of faux outrage since President Trump first rode the escalator down in 2015, but some simply refuse to ‘get it.’ This will be their downfall in 2024.”
The Chicago event came as Harris continues to ride the wave of momentum that has propelled her over the past 10 days since President Biden stepped aside as the Democratic presidential front-runner. A wave of groups quickly banded together to organize nearly nightly online calls to recruit volunteers and raise millions of dollars for her campaign. Polls are starting to show their impact.
A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll released Tuesday shows Trump still holding a 4-point lead among registered voters in Pennsylvania and a 2-point lead in North Carolina. But support for Harris is rising in other key states, most notably Michigan, where she leads by 11 points. In Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada, she leads by 2 points. The poll showed the two candidates tied in Georgia.
Tuesday's poll marks a contrast with an April Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll that showed Biden trailing Trump in every state except Michigan, where Biden led by 2 points.
Former President Trump's appearance at NABJ came as some polls show momentum for Harris since she entered the race.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
According to an Associated Press-NORC poll released Wednesday, the overwhelming majority of Democrats support Harris as the party’s new front-runner, though many are not fully convinced of her ability to beat Trump. The poll found that about 80% of Democrats agree that Harris would make a good president, and nearly as many people said they would be satisfied with her as a candidate.
But only 71% of Democrats believe Harris is likely to win the election, compared with 88% of Republicans who believe the same of Trump.
Harris is expected to name her running mate soon. Speculation focused on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro after his campaign announced that she and “her future running mate” would campaign together next week, starting in Philadelphia. Considered a leading contender for the post, Shapiro could help Harris build needed support in the battleground state.
Moore and Jennings reported from Chicago, Rainey and Pinho from Los Angeles.
