In one of his even more quick-witted and likable moments than normal, former President Trump was able to divert the furious question of a race-focused reporter from ABC News in an incident now receiving more scrutiny given the way he was treated during his debate with Vice President Harris that was hosted by ABC News. That incident occurred in late July of this year at the National Association of Black Journalists Conference.
As background, former President Trump appeared at that event, though Harris did not, and during it, he did his best to build rapport with the crowd. However, during the event, right toward the beginning of his comments to the crowd, one of the moderators, ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott, went on the attack and accused him of being racist.
She said, “You have used words like ‘animal’ and ‘rabid’ to describe black district attorneys. You’ve attacked black journalists, calling them a ‘loser,’ saying the questions that they are asking are, quote, ‘stupid and racist.’ You’ve had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort. So, my question, sir, now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you, why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that?”
Responding, Trump said that the question was “horrible,” and that she didn’t even begin with an appropriate greeting. He told Scott, going on the attack against what he later described as the “nasty” question, “Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner. The first question. You don’t even say, ‘Hello, how are you?'”
Continuing, he slammed ABC News, despite later doing a debate hosted by the network, telling her, “Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network. A terrible network.” The crowd had a boisterous and mixed reaction to that remark, some of them obviously loving it and others feeling quite the opposite. In any case, Trump continued, saying, “I think it’s disgraceful” and “I came here in good spirit.”
Also, Trump spoke about his efforts to help black Americans, “Including employment, including opportunity zones, with Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, which is one of the greatest programs ever for black workers and black entrepreneurs done so much. And, you know, and I say this, historically black colleges and universities were out of money. They were stone-cold broke, and I saved them, and I gave them long term financing, and nobody else was doing it. I think it’s a very rude introduction. I don’t know exactly why you would do something like that.”
Watch that interaction here:
That’s not all. At another point, reminiscent of the ABC News presidential debate and the fact-checking of only Trump, Scott tried interrupting him as he attempted to give a response to a question. Interrupting him and trying to get him to move on to something else, she said, “We have you for a limited time, sir. I’d love to move on to different topics if we can.” Trump wasn’t having it. Firing back, he retorted, “No, excuse me. You’re the one that held me up for 35 minutes, just so you understand.”
Watch that here:
There was still more. Later on, Trump pointed to Scott and hammered her question at the beginning as “nasty” and rude, saying, “Look, if I came onto a stage like this and I got treated so rudely as this woman treated me. Very rude. That was a nasty — that wasn’t even a question. She didn’t ask me a question. She gave a statement.”
Additionally, Scott asked him, “Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman?” Trump responded by telling her, “No, I think it’s maybe a little bit different.” He then added, “She was always of Indian heritage. 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 — is she Indian or is she black? I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t.”
That remark came back up during the ABC News-hosted presidential debate, with Trump being asked about it and saying, in response, “I don’t know. I mean all I can say is I read where she was not black.” Continuing, the former president said, “And then I read that she was Black and that’s O.K. Either one was O.K. with me. That’s up to her.”
Watch Trump speak about Harris and her ethnicity here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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