Key takeaways from Trump’s train-wreck interview with the National Association of Black Journalists
Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump speaks during a Q&A on the opening day of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Annual Convention & Career Fair at the Hilton Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Joel Angel Juarez for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Former president Donald Trump made an appearance at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) as part of his re-election campaign – and the interview didn’t appear to go down well.
During the event in Chicago on Wednesday (31 July), Trump engaged in a combative question-and-answer session, bringing jeers from the crowd of registered NABJ members. The Republican nominee took aim at vice-president Kamala Harris’ race, declaring he was “the best president for the Black population” since Abraham Lincoln.
Even before Trump stepped on to the stage, his invitation to speak stoked controversy both within the NABJ, with some members feeling his appearance undermined the organisation’s values, and even led to a convention co-chairwoman stepping down from her role.
NABJ president Ken Lemon said that while the association acknowledged the concerns raised, it was important to give members “the opportunity to hear directly from candidates and hold them accountable”.
Defending the decision, he said: “It has always been our policy to ensure that candidates know that an invitation is not an endorsement. We also agreed that while this race is much different, and contentious, so are the consequences.”
The Q&A was moderated by Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, Harris Faulkner, a co-host of Outnumbered on Fox News, and Kadia Goba, a politics reporter at Semafor.
Here are three key takeaways from Trump’s excruciating appearance:
Trump claimed moderator Rachel Scott was ‘rude’
Almost from the start, Trump picked a fight and took aim at Rachel Scott by describing her as rude after she asked him why Black people should trust him after his use of racially charged language in the past.
“First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump replied. “I think it’s a very rude introduction.”
Later on, he took another swipe at Scott, saying she treated him “very rudely”.
He also mocked the NABJ for having “bad equipment”, blaming that for a delayed start to the event and for him not being able to hear questions, before claiming: “I was invited here and I was told my opponent, whether it was Biden or Kamala, was going to be here.
“It turned out my opponent isn’t here. You invited me under false pretence.”
He went on to suggest he was not allowed to conduct the Q&A on Zoom while Harris would be allowed to do so.
In a press release, the NABJ said it is “currently in conversation with the Harris for President campaign to schedule a Q&A session, either in person or virtually, at some point in September”.
Political science and communication professor Zizi Papacharissi told USA Today that “chaos and noise is an election strategy for [Trump]” and “above all he’s trying to create noise and distraction”.
She continued: “Chaos is his friend, chaos is a partner that he uses and he knows how to use really well to get himself elected.”
Northwestern University communications professor Pablo Boczkowski said that Trump’s messaging “thrives on being centre stage, even at the expense of some controversy, a level of controversy that might be damaging for other politicians”.
Trump asked if Kamala Harris was ‘Black or Indian’
If one moment dominated the event, it was Trump’s questioning of Harris’ racial heritage.
Scott pushed him on whether he believes Harris is a “DEI hire” – referring to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives – after Republican representative Tim Burchett described her as such.
“I really don’t know, could be, could be,” Trump said. “I’ve known her a long time indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage.”
Going on to pronounce the word Black as blu-hack, he told the audience: “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. Now she wants to be known as Black.
“So, I don’t know. Is she Indian or is she Black? I respect either one but she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way, then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.”
Harris’s mother, who was a biomedical scientist, moved to the US from India. Her father, an economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University, is from Jamaica. The pair met in 1962 and were married a year later.
In response to the interview, Harris described Trump’s appearance as “the same old show [of] divisiveness… and disrespect”, adding: “The American people deserve better. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us, they are an essential source of our strength.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the first Black and LGBTQ+ person to hold the position, called the comments repulsive and insulting.
“No one has any right to tell someone who they are,” Jean-Pierre added. “She is the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris. We have to put some respect on her name.”
He defended running-mate JD Vance over past criticism of ‘childless’ politicians
Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ running mate JD Vance has made some choice comments in the past about Democrats, labelling them “childless cat ladies” and saying people who have children should get more votes than those who do not.
“It’s just a basic fact,” he claimed. “You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. How does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Both Harris and Buttigieg have children.
In an attempt to justify Vance’s views in front of the NABJ, Trump said: “He is very family orientated and he thinks family is a great thing. That doesn’t mean he thinks that if you don’t have a family, it’s not.”
Rambling on aimlessly, Trump added: “I know people with families, I know people with great families. I know people with very troubled families and I also know people with no families. They didn’t meet the right person, you go through life, things happen, you don’t meet the right person.”
But he was quick to downplay Vance’s importance in the election campaign.
“Historically, the vice-president in terms of the election does not have any impact, I mean virtually no impact… [people are] “voting for the president, you’re voting for me.”
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