Yesterday, former President and current Presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference in Chicago. There, he made a few statements that could stir up disagreement among voters.
Viewers knew a rough time was ahead when Trump verbally confronted the interviewer for ABC News, Rachel Scott. According to PBS, the former president accused her of “giving him a “very rude introduction” with a tough first question about his past criticism of Black people and Black journalists”.
In response, Trump said the following:
“I think it’s 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”.
After the interview had gone on for some time without much drama, more was stirred up when Trump claimed fellow candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had previously only promoted her Indian heritage.
PBS quotes Trump as saying:
“I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago…she happened to turn Black…she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
Recently speaking at the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.’s 60th International Biennial Boule in Houston, Texas, Harris had a clever response ready for the accusations Trump threw out, “It was the same old show…the divisiveness and the disrespect…our differences do not divide us, they are an essential source of our strength…The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts”.
Harris went on to say that “the American people deserve better”.
Her comments drew laughter from the audience present for the annual meeting of the NABJ.
During her undergraduate career, Harris was a student at Howard University, “one of the nation’s most prominent historically Black institutions”, where she became part of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically Black sorority.
While she was a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Politics is a world of insults, accusations, and comebacks. Trump’s NABJ interview and Harris’ response are further proof of this.
