Former President Donald Trump told an audience of Black journalists in Chicago on Wednesday that he was “the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln” and also questioned the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy as his Democratic challenger.
In sometimes feisty exchanges with a panel of journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Trump attacked organizers for not having Harris appear at the same time, accusing them of bringing him under “false pretense.” The Republican presidential nominee criticized the initial questioning from ABC congressional correspondent Rachel Scott about his past disparaging comments about his political opponents of color as as “disgraceful” and “rude.”
“Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network and terrible,” he said. “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.”
Asked if he believed Harris, the first Black and Asian-American female to become a major party candidate for the presidency, has been promoted for office 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 Biden’s running mate in 2020. Harris graduated from a historically black university
“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.”
Responding 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.
Trump also sought to distance himself from controversial comments made by his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who has had a history of criticizing people who are childless and favors a tax policy that penalizes residents who do not have children.
Trump also was asked about his support for greater immunity for police officers from prosecutors in light of the death of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Springfield area woman who was shot and killed on 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 of his call for immunity. But he acknowledged, he didn’t know much about the incident except to say, “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.
His appearance also comes less than three weeks before Chicago hosts the Democratic National Convention, where thousands of Democrats are expected to rally in support of Harris, the first Black and Asian woman to seek the presidency. Harris quickly coalesced support and is the Democrats’ presumptive nominee after President Joe 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 — and said they are working with Harris on a virtual event after the Democratic convention.
Among hundreds of convention attendees waiting for Trump at the Hilton was Norfolk, Va., 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 only a panel of three moderators would be allowed to ask Trump questions — rather than the crowd of journalists – but that 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.”
Still, Johnson said he planned to vote for Harris.
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 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 with 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 that the “Black population is affected most” by the border crisis.
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 outside the hotel, fewer than 100 gathered 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.
“Trump just says really bigoted, ignorant things,” Valles said.
