Who would have thought Donald Trump would accept a tough gig at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, and Kamala Harris would not? Trump was hounded with vicious questions and yet the NABJ is erupting internally because Team Harris just couldn’t find any time for journalists, and Trump said sure, I’ll take you on.
My overwhelming sense here is there is Kamala Harris will never face hostile questions like this. There is no way she would ever be asked questions as rude as Trump received at an NABJ conference. She's never going to accept an interview request from Fox or Newsmax or God forbid, conservative radio stars. The double standard is blatant and unforgettable.
ABC congressional correspondent Rachel Scott began the questioning fiercely:
A lot of people did not think it was appropriate for you to be here today. You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four congresswoman of color who were American citizens to go back to where they came from. You have used words like animal and rabbit to describe black attorneys. You've attacked black journalists, calling them a losers, saying the questions that they asked are, “stupid and racist.” You've had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort. So my question, sir, now that you were asking black supporters to vote for you, why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that?
The journalists also pressed Trump about J.D. Vance's comments about cat ladies, about abortion, and about promises to pardon some January 6 protesters. None of that was surprising. It's like any other liberal-media interview list.
A number of black journalists acted offended that Trump should be offered this "platform," or be "normalized." Did you know Louis Farrakhan was invited to speak to this group in 1996?
Credit goes to Symone Sanders-Townsend, who sensibly stated “NABJ didn’t platform Trump. The voters in the Republican primary did....Just like anyone else who is running for President, he should sit for serious interviews and answer real questions.” And he did, and he gets no credit for it.
Since the 2020 campaign, we have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of Donald Trump granting wide access to networks that suggest he's a fascist and racist and hammer him daily, while Biden and Harris won't grant interviews to media outlets that gurgle all over them and their "historic accomplishments." Either they think the press can never be servile enough or they are projecting a complete lack of confidence in their efforts to put complete sentences together.
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you ponder your podcasts.
