Former President Donald Trump questioned the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy as his Democratic challenger and told an audience of Black journalists in Chicago on Wednesday that he was “the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”
In a 34-minute appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, cut short from a scheduled hour, a feisty Trump came out on the attack. He criticized ABC News congressional correspondent Rachel Scott for her first question, in which she recited a list of his past disparaging comments about his political opponents of color, calling it “disgraceful,” “rude” and “nasty.”
“Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network and terrible,” he told her. “I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirits. I love the Black population of this country. I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country.”
Asked if he believed Harris, the first Black and Asian American female to become a major party candidate for the presidency, was on the Democratic ticket only because of her race, Trump said he hadn’t always known she was Black.
“So I’ve known her a long time indirectly, directly not very much. And 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 if she’s Indian or is she Black?” Trump said.
Born to a Jamaican American father and an Indian American mother, Harris has run as a Black and Asian candidate throughout her political career in California, from her days as a district attorney, attorney general and U.S. senator, before she was chosen to be President Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020. Harris received her undergraduate degree from Howard University, a historically black university in Washington.
“I respect either one but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn. She became a Black,” he said. “She was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she became a Black person.”
Inside the crowded Hilton Chicago ballroom, some of Trump’s answers were greeted by gasps and an occasional shout, while others in the audience visibly cringed.
In a response issued later Wednesday, the Harris campaign said Trump’s comments were “simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign.”
“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,” the Harris campaign said.
But Trump’s campaign doubled down, issuing a statement criticizing “the unhinged and unprofessional commentary directed toward” Trump, even though the former president was largely asked only to respond to his own previous statements.
The Trump campaign statement was attributed to Lynne Patton, a Black senior adviser to his campaign and a former event planner and federal worker during his administration. In 2021, she was found to have violated federal law restricting political activities of executive branch employees and was fined and barred from government service for four years.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was to attend the convention Wednesday night, summed up his take
More Top Picks Best Computer Glasses For Programmers
on the former president’s appearance on X: “He came, he complained, he lied.”Questioned about his choice of running mate, Trump sought to distance himself from controversial comments made by Ohio Sen. JD Vance about people who are childless. In 2021, Vance contended that “our country is basically run by childless Democrats who are miserable in their own lives and want to make the rest of the country miserable too,” one comment in a long history of disparaging childless people, according to a CNN report.
“My interpretation, you’ll have to ask him, actually, but my interpretation is he is strongly family oriented, but that doesn’t mean if you don’t have a family, there’s something wrong,” Trump said.
Moreover, Trump downplayed Vance’s role in boosting the GOP ticket. “Historically, the vice president in terms of the election does not have any impact,” he said. “I mean, virtually no impact.”
Trump also was asked about his support for greater immunity from criminal prosecution for police officers in light of the death of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Springfield-area woman who was shot and killed July 6 by a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy answering her 911 call about a prowler. Sean Grayson was fired from the department and charged with Massey’s murder.
“We need to have our police officers have the respect and dignity back,” Trump said. But he acknowledged he didn’t know much about the Massey incident, except that “in this particular case, I saw something that didn’t look good to me. I didn’t like it.”
Trump’s appearance at the Hilton Chicago, billed as a “conversation,” began more than one hour late, and he berated organizers for unspecified equipment failures that he blamed for the delay. He also contended that organizers got him to attend the event “under false pretense,” alleging Harris was supposed to be there.
Harris, who is vetting a running mate, was not attending the convention and was in talks with organizers to hold an event virtually or in person later this year, according to the NABJ.
Trump’s appearance comes less than three weeks before Chicago hosts the Democratic National Convention, where thousands of Democrats are expected to rally in support of Harris. She quickly coalesced support and is the Democrats’ presumptive nominee after Biden opted not to seek reelection and endorsed her as his successor.
Trump’s visit prompted turmoil within the Black journalists organization, including the resignation of the convention’s co-chair. The former president has a history of making comments that some considered racist in tone and has also voiced disparaging views toward the media, personally attacking Black female White House correspondents during his presidency.
NABJ officials have featured several presidential candidates in the past. Trump declined a similar invitation in 2016.
Among hundreds of convention attendees waiting for Trump at the Hilton was Norfolk, Virginia, public television and radio producer Lisa Godley, who said she hadn’t seen anything like the division caused by the event among NABJ this week in her 20 to 25 years with the association.
“This is our opportunity to come together as a group, to learn from each other, gain knowledge, and I don’t like seeing us divided on things,” Godley said. “So I’m hoping that we get, just like a family would, in terms of trying to overcome a hurdle of some sort. So we’ll just see how this goes.”
Chuck Johnson, a 70-year-old retired sports writer who said he’s been a member of NABJ for four decades, said he was disappointed that only a panel of three moderators would be allowed to ask Trump questions — rather than having him take questions from the crowd of journalists. But he said he supported the decision to bring Trump to the convention.
“We’re journalists, so who else to question a political figure who’s running for the highest office in the land but working journalists?” he said.
While Johnson said he understood concerns about things Trump had said and done in the past, he said, “The profession that we’re in dictates everything, as far as I’m concerned. So no doubt about it, he should be here.”
In addition to ABC’s Scott, moderators who questioned Trump were Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner and Semafor political reporter Kadia Goba.
It was Trump’s first official visit to Chicago, a city he has regularly vilified during his political career, since 2019, when as president he appeared before the International Association of Chiefs of Police and criticized the city’s law enforcement policies.
Trump’s latest visit comes as polling has shown that gains the Republican nominee had been making among Black voters have been reversed by Harris.
In the months preceding Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race, polling had shown he was losing support among Black voters, who were crucial to his 2020 victory over Trump. In 2020, 92% of Black voters chose Biden, while about 8% backed Trump.
After Biden’s decision to quit the race, a CNN poll conducted on July 22-23 found Harris had the support of 78% of Black voters, while Trump had 15%. A previous CNN poll showed Biden with the backing of 73% of Black voters, while 23% supported Trump.
The Trump campaign has said it expected Harris would enjoy a “honeymoon” in the early days of her candidacy.
Trump, as he did in the June 27 debate with Biden, sought to tie his attacks on the administration’s handling of the border and immigration to his push for Black support by warning that immigrants were taking “Black jobs.”
“I will tell you that coming from the border are millions and millions of people that happen to be taking Black jobs,” he said.
Asked what a “Black job was,” Trump said. “A Black job is anybody that has a job” and contended that the “Black population is affected most” by the border crisis, though he presented no evidence.
The Democratic National Committee is hosting a Thursday event to promote their national convention featuring DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and convention Chair Minyon Moore. Convention officials said the event will include discussions on how Democrats “have delivered for Black Americans.”
Despite predictions from several Chicago-based groups that hundreds would show up to rally against Trump, fewer than 100 gathered outside the Hilton to speak out against the former president. Chicago police officers made a barricade with their bikes to prevent congestion from spilling onto oncoming traffic.
Stevie Valles, 35, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Chicago Votes, said he was concerned that Trump still hadn’t released how his proposed policies as president would affect the Black community.
More Top Picks Best 13 14 Inch Laptops
“Trump just says really bigoted, ignorant things,” Valles said.