Donald Trump’s interview with a black journalists’ association got off to a combative start after he clashed with his first questioner and said he ‘didn’t know’ Vice President Kamala Harris is black.
The drama came with the very first question after the former president got asked about some of his past comments attacking black journalists and lawmakers and dining with a white supremacist at Mar-a-Lago.
After tearing into his opening questioner on a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump took on Harris, who is of mixed heritage, questioning her lineage and suggesting her embrace of black culture was phony.
‘I didn’t know she was black,’ Trump said. ‘I don’t know is she Indian or is she black.’
‘She was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and became a black person,’ Trump said, a day after Harris attended a rally in Atlanta with prominent black lawmakers and cheering supporters.
Trump has been making an intensive effort to secure black votes, having some success besting Joe Biden’s 2020 performance in pre-election polls.
On Wednesday, right out of the gate, Trump tangled with his first questioner after she asked him a multi-part question that brought up several of his comments attacking African American journalists and Fulton County DA Fani Willis.
ABC’s Rachel Scott said a lot of people didn’t think it was appropriate for him to be in Chicago for the interview, pointing to remarks calling a black journalist a ‘loser,’ tearing into an African American congresswoman, and alluding to his meeting with white nationalist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago.
‘First of all I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,’ Trump told Scott, who asked the lead-off question.
‘You don’t even say hello how are you?’ Trump lectured, calling ABC a fake news network.
Donald Trump’s interview with ABC’s Rachel Scott, FOX News’ Harris Faulkner and Semafor’s Nadia Goba got off to a tense start
‘I came here in good spirit. I love the black population of this country,’ he said.
‘I think it’s a very rude introduction. I don’t know exactly why you would do something like that,’ he said.
Then Trump complained about the faulty equipment for the interview, and blaming the NASB for holding him up for an interview that started more than 30 minutes behind schedule.
‘I was told my opponent was going to be here. You invited me under false pretense. And then you said you can’t do it with zoom,’ he said, after the group announced that it was negotiating with Harris to do a zoom interview next month.
‘I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln,’ Trump said. He called the initial questions ‘hostile’ and a ‘disgrace.’
Trump kept coming back to complaints about the AV equipment, saying the ‘mics are really in lousy shape.’
In his quotes on Harris, the presumed Democratic nominee, Trump said Harri ‘was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage.’
‘I didn’t now she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black,’ Trump said.
‘So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black? And you know what I respect either one but she obviously doesn’t,’ Trump said.
‘Because she was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a black person. I think somebody should look into that.’
Nearly 30 minutes into the interview, Trump was still complaining about ‘being treated so rudely as this woman treated me.’
Trump was able to launch his successful 2016 presidential campaign in part through attacks on Barack Obama’s heritage and false claims he wasn’t a U.S. citizen. After Biden bailed out on his 2024 campaign amid pressure from party leaders, one question has been how Trump would adjust to facing female opponent who attended a historically black college and makes African American heritage an important part of her identity.
At times, Wednesday’s event ‘felt like it was kind of going off the rails,’ said Fox News anchor Martha McCaullum, after the network cut away from coverage to broadcast the dramatic clash.