Hostile Trump takes the stage at Black journalists’ conference

 

 “He claimed to be the best president for Black people since Abraham Lincoln and suggested Harris used her race to help her get elected.

Beverly White Higgs, a retired broadcaster, said she’s “not surprised with most of what he said,” ticking off Trump’s riffs on HBCUs, abortion and the vice presidential pick. “It’s how he handles business all the time — freestyling with a loose affiliation with the facts,” said Higgs. “I think the three journalists did the best they could. ... He bulldozes journalists, especially Black women journalists.”

Asked if she thought the exchange with reporters was weird, Higgs said: “I think weird understates this man. The racism, the sexism, it’s not weird. It’s awful. Weird is a three-legged dog. This isn’t weird. It’s gross.”

Trump’s appearance at the annual conference had set off a controversy before he even took the stage.

On Tuesday, some Black journalists and others condemned the former president’s invitation to address journalists, decrying that organizers would offer Trump a platform. Others, however, defended the decision, saying it was an opportunity and duty for journalists to interview a presidential candidate regardless of how they felt about the GOP presidential nominee.

NABJ Co-Chair Karen Attiah said she would step down after not being “involved or consulted with in any way.” Femi Redwood, chair of the NABJ’s LGBTQ+ task force, said she was “disturbed” the task force “was not invited into conversations about hosting Trump considering the damage he has caused Black queer and trans people.”

“This is the single dumbest and worst decision in NABJ history,” Carron J. Phillips, a 2019 and 2020 NABJ award winner, wrote Tuesday on X. “Whoever made this call is an idiot. And I’ll say it to their face this week.”

Harrison Fields, a Trump surrogate who served as assistant press secretary in the Trump White House, called the interview a no-win situation for the former president and described the atmosphere as a hostile environment.

“This is consistent with who Trump is,” Fields said. “Trump is going to go to places that aren’t necessarily his comfort zone, but he understands the value of having these conversations.”

Eugene Daniels contributed to this report.“