Paul Beaty/AP
Former President Donald Trump’s appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention on Wednesday shocked audience members within its opening minutes, as the GOP presidential nominee insulted the moderators—three Black women—claiming their opening question was asked in a “horrible manner.” “You don’t even say, hello, how are you?” Trump said, taking clear offense to a question about his record of denigrating Black people.
And then, it only got worse.
“Are you with ABC?” Trump continued. “Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network, and I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit.”
The tense exchange instantly set the tone of the question-and-answer session that featured Trump attacking Vice President Kamala Harris with racist characterizations. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said.
At one point, Trump, while insisting that he, as president, had “done so much for the Black community,” attacked the interviewers as “nasty” and a “disgrace.”
The remarks prompted repeated gasps from the audience, as the interviewers—Semafor’s Kadia Goba, ABC News’ Rachel Scott, and Fox News’ Harris Faulkner—continued asking the former president about pardoning Jan. 6 rioters. “If they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” he said. He did this while also claiming that Harris should take a cognitive test because she failed the bar exam. (Harris eventually passed and was admitted to the California bar in 1990.)
Trump also said: “A black job is anybody that has a job,” he said. “That’s what it is.” Again, the crowd gasped.
The announcement on Monday that Trump would appear at the convention sparked intense backlash, with some Black journalists arguing that the former president should not be invited over his long record of attacking Black women journalists.
Bobby Henry, chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents more than 240 Black-owned newspapers, said before the event he opposed Trump’s appearance at the event because it “undermines the NABJ’s values of inclusion and solidarity and risks normalizing his damaging behavior.”
NABJ sought to quell the criticism, claiming that the interviewers would prepare questions about “the most pressing issues facing the Black community.” The NABJ added that Trump’s appearance did not amount to the group’s endorsement.
The NABJ is working on scheduling a similar discussion with Harris for September.
