Former President Trump and a Black journalist engaged in a sometimes incendiary spat over race on Wednesday, with the Republican nominee saying he was the best president for Black people since Abraham Lincoln and falsely accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of changing the way she described her own racial identity.
Trump’s session with three journalists took place on the sidelines of the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention and became heated from the start, when Rachel Scott, chief congressional correspondent for ABC News, recited a series of incendiary comments from Trump, including claiming that former President Obama was not born in the United States, and asking why black voters should trust him.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question that was that horrible, the first question,” Trump replied. “You don’t even say, ‘Hi, how are you?’ Do you work for ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network and, by the way, terrible. I think it’s a disgrace.”
Trump then said he had initiated “the best programs in history for black workers and entrepreneurs,” referring to opportunity zones for black businesses and his work to help “save” historically black colleges and universities when they were “failing.”
Trump's 36-minute session at the annual convention remained intense, as he blamed the organization for starting the event an hour late and claimed he had been “invited under false pretenses” believing Harris, his expected opponent in the November election, would also attend.
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.”
The tension between Scott and Trump continued when the correspondent asked whether it was acceptable to suggest, as some Republicans have, that Harris’s rise as his opponent amounts to “DEI hiring,” a reference to policies that encourage diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring.
Without directly answering the question, Trump accused Harris of changing her racial and ethnic identification over time, suggesting she had a lack of “respect” for his racial identity.
The Republican said that for years Harris “was always of Indian descent and she was just promoting that descent. 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. Is she Indian or is she black?”
“I respect both of them, but she obviously doesn’t,” Trump continued.
An early and obvious recognition by Harris of her racial identity: she attended Howard University in Washington DC, a historically black institution.
The temperature of the sessions cooled when FOX News anchor Harris Faulkner took over the questioning and the former president returned to old themes, in particular denouncing the “invasion” of illegal immigrants, which he said was “destroying” the United States.
“I will tell you that there are millions and millions of people coming across the border who are taking jobs from black people,” Trump said, adding: “They are invading. They are invading. It is an invasion of millions of people, probably 15, 16, 17 million people.”
He quickly shifted blame to Harris for the surge in migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, noting that President Biden had put the vice president in charge of overseeing the issue.
“Kamala is allowing this to happen,” Trump said. “She is the border czar and she is the worst border czar in the history of the world. There has never been a border czar like this.”
Trump later suggested that immigrants had been allowed into the country as part of a plan to boost voting for Democrats. PolitiFact noted that Trump and his campaign have never provided evidence of such a plot and that reports of non-citizens voting are extremely rare.
The nearly 50-year-old NABJ will meet for its annual convention in Chicago, with about 2,000 of its members expected to attend the former president's appearance.
Before the session, some NABJ members had protested that Trump should not have been invited because of his past actions, including harsh comments about some Black journalists. But others, including the group’s president, said it was tradition to invite candidates from both major parties in election years.
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.
Others said the role of journalists is to report on political figures, even those with whom they might personally disagree. Some took to social media to suggest tough questions for Trump, including about his stance on the Central Park 5.
That group of young black and Latino men was charged in 1989 with assaulting and raping a white woman who was jogging in New York City. Another man later confessed to the crime and their convictions were overturned in 2002. Trump took out a full-page newspaper ad suggesting the death penalty for the men and, years later, did not apologize for his stance.
Vice President Kamala Harris's office said she was unable to fit the convention into her schedule, but NABJ said it was “in discussions” with her campaign and hoped to schedule a question-and-answer session with her in September.
