Moments into a heated question-and-answer session with Black journalists in Chicago, Donald Trump falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black” only recently.
“I didn’t know she was Black,” he said on Wednesday. “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 she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.”
Trump — responding to questions about whether he agrees with Republican allies who claimed that she was selected to run for office only because of her race — frequently interrupted and sparred with three Black women media workers at the National Association of Black Journalists conference.
Harris’s father is from Jamaica and her mother is Indian. The presumptive Democratic nominee for president is both the first African-American and Asian-American vice president.
What was supposed to be an hourlong panel abruptly ended roughly 30 minutes later when it was clear that Trump had led the session off the rails.
Trump was first confronted by ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott about his false claims about his rivals and his inflammatory remarks to officials and reporters of color.
“Why would Black voters trust you when you have used language like that?” she asked.
“I don’t think I’ve been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump replied. “You don’t even say hello, how are you.”
He called ABC a “fake news network” and the questions “disgraceful.”
“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 think it’s a very rude introduction. I don’t know why you would do something like that. … I think it’s a very nasty question.”
He called himself “the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”
When pressed by Scott whether he agrees with other GOP lawmakers’ derogatory claims that Harris is a “DEI” hire, Trump twice asked for the definition.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion,” Scott replied. “That is literally the words. … Is she only on the ticket because she is a Black woman?”
Trump then began to question Harris’s enthnicity, drawing immediate backlash from the crowd, online and at the White House.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who spoke to reporters in Washington DC as the former president was addressing the conference in Chicago, said Trump’s comments were “repulsive” and “insulting.”
Harris’s campaign said Trump’s “tirade” was “the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president.”
“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,” said Harris for President communications director Michael Tyler.
The former president has repeatedly denigrated journalists as the “enemy of the people,” suggested that news networks should be taken off air and that publishers be threatened with becoming prison “brides,” and supported lawsuits to roll back press freedoms. In office, he routinely attacked Black journalists — including NABJ members — at press conferences and online.
The announcement of his appearance on Monday night, less than 48 hours before he was scheduled to address the conference, drew swift backlash from association members, some of whom stepped down from the group and boycotted the event, citing his previous attacks.
Harris’s rapidly intensifying campaign schedule “could not accommodate” the group’s request for her appearance at Wednesday’s event, according to a statement from NABJ president Ken Lemon, who defended Trump’s solo appearance at the conference.
She is expected to attend a similar question-and-answer session with the NABJ either in person or virtually in September.
“I consulted with a group of our Founders and past NABJ Presidents Tuesday on-site in Chicago, and as a group, we affirmed that the invitation to Former President Trump was in line with NABJ’s usual practices since 1976,” Lemon 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.”
“While we acknowledge the concerns expressed by our members, we believe it is important for us to provide our members with the opportunity to hear directly from candidates and hold them accountable,” he added.
Before Trump’s appearance, Harris’s campaign said that “Black voters see Donald Trump’s lies and empty pandering for what they are — and they will hold him accountable at the polls this November.”
“We know Donald Trump is going to lie about his record and the real harm he’s caused Black communities at NABJ – and he must be called out,” according to the Harris campaign’s Black media director Jasmine Harris.