The Kamala Harris campaign condemned Donald Trump’s “hostility” during his appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago on Wednesday.
“The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler wrote in a press statement.
“Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency — while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in. Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us,” he continued. “Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign. It’s also exactly what the American people will see from across the debate stage as Vice President Harris offers a vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans. All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on Sept. 10.”
The Harris campaign’s statement came an hour after Trump took the stage with NABJ moderators ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott, Fox News host Harris Faulkner and Semafor politics reporter Kadia Goba. The event itself was not public, but was livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
Trump’s fumbling performance started from the very top of the Q&A, which came about 30 minutes late due to so-called technical difficulties, when he was asked about his past comments about Black people.
“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner. You don’t even say ‘Hello, how are you?’ Are you with ABC? 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, I love the Black population of this country, I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country,” he said. “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”
“I think it’s a very rude introduction. I don’t know exactly why you would do something like that. Let me go a step further: I was told my opponent, whether it was Biden or Kamala, I was told my opponent was going to be here. It turned out my opponent isn’t here; you invited me under false pretenses,” Trump went on. “And then you said you can’t do it with Zoom. Well, where’s Zoom? She’s going to do it with Zoom and she’s not coming. And then you were half and hour late — just so we understand, I have too much respect for you to be late. They couldn’t get their equipment working or something.”
The Republican presidential candidate then personally attacked Harris further, saying, “She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. 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. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black? I respect either one. But obviously she doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went, she became a Black person. And I think somebody should look into that.”
After questioning whether the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate was a “DEI hire,” Trump’s team then cut the interview short after the topic of Project 2025 was brought up.
Shortly after the public statement from Harris’ team, Trump’s running mate JD Vance issued a statement of his own on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “President Trump walked right into the NABJ conference and showed he had the courage to take tough questions, while Kamala Harris continues to hide from any scrutiny or unfriendly media like the coward she is.”
Harris indeed missed out on the NABJ conference due to self-proclaimed scheduling issues after President Joe Biden dropped out of the November election race and endorsed his VP in the process. While there were supposedly efforts made for a virtual appearance, some reports state otherwise.
Additionally, Wednesday’s political back-and-forth came a week after Trump effectively dropped out of his September ABC News debate with Harris, which was originally scheduled against Biden.
