So former President Trump did what only he does best today and walked into the proverbial "lion's den" at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. It was by invitation - they also issued one to his opponent, whoever it was at the time and now isn't - but Trump is the only one who showed up.
That in itself is hysterical. The guy, God bless him, is fearless.
Rachel Scott was "hosting," but judging by the immediate hostile tone and rude interrogatories, she was loaded for bear and wanted to earn her bad-a** badge.
I don't think she did, even as hard as she pushed.
President Trump walked right into the NABJ conference and showed he had the courage to take tough questions, while Kamala Harris continues to hide from any scrutiny or unfriendly media like the coward she is. https://t.co/8l7OgGb6xO
— JD Vance (@JDVance) July 31, 2024
Trump bristled and I can't say I blame him, but from what little I've seen so far, that was handled pretty badly on her part. And I sure hope the people in the audience clapping for Trump's answers are okay.
I'll let other people parse the meat of the event but I did want to touch on something interesting that came out of it. I saw all this moaning about how Trump had stepped in it big-time, and I couldn't figure out where. Until I saw this clip:
Trump: "I've known [Kamala] a long time indirectly. She was always of Indian heritage and 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. I respect either one." pic.twitter.com/3PuTRrh892
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 31, 2024
And the first reaction is, yeah -
AY DIOS MIO, WHAT DID HE DO?!?!
But, if you listen, the audience is cracking up. I don't know if it's out of astonishment that he'd have the nerve to say such a thing - Rachel Scott was certainly sputtering in indignant, "She's ALWAYS IDENTIFIED AS A BLACK WOMAN *snarlsnarlsnarl*!" outrage trying to shut him down - or if it was because so many in the audience secretly think Kamala's a phony, too.
I have no idea.
But it's quite a moment. And a moment that could be a death blow to most people, only that damn Trump, right?
They're already fact-checking the appearance. Did Kamala fail the bar? Trump says yes, Scott says no...advantage?
Trump.
REPORT: Donald Trump was correct when he asserted that Kamala Harris failed the bar exam.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 31, 2024
It won't be long until the media and Big Tech scrub this from the internet too.
During his appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Trump claimed that Harris… pic.twitter.com/bUdV3mzkWr
I'm sure there are more fact-checks to follow but about that Indian thing...
Danged if he's not right again.
Flashback: California's Kamala Harris becomes first Indian-American US senator | Associated Press
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) July 31, 2024
Trump said today that Kamala Harris used to identify as an Indian-American and later pivoted to identify as black.
Fact check: True pic.twitter.com/B9JGbgWyTT
He's right all the way back to 2003.
Trump mentions Kamala used to be Indian, now black. Look at this news clip from when she first ran for DA... It says she would be first “Asian-Pacific American Descent” DA (no mention of being first black DA, which she was) https://t.co/h32YOwZmm1 pic.twitter.com/gZ2AeVXuo5
— Wendell Husebø (@WendellHusebo) July 31, 2024
And not only in news reports but out of her own mouth...
Media: "OMG I can't believe Trump said Kamala used to identify as Indian!" https://t.co/GvZASSHqNn
— Theodore II (@RefDemo2) July 31, 2024
...more than once.
NABJ "journalist": Kamala has ALWAYS identified as black
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 31, 2024
Kamala with Mindy KaLing: I'm Indian. pic.twitter.com/xXuE24XWvt
I find this all hugely interesting, and maybe that's part of the reason so many black voters feel no affection for Ms Harris besides her penchant for throwing them in prison for minor crimes. She has never really been a part of the black community, seemingly being focused on her mom's Indian heritage vice her dad's Jamaican.
This interview when she was running for senate is all about the Asian community.
in her own words pic.twitter.com/q0Ce7Ig3PO
— JoseMario"D Great Pumpking"(Gab/Gettr @scrpion316) (@JoseMar39348119) July 31, 2024
The liberal networks are already screaming about this from the rafters as loud as they can.
GOP strategist Shermichael Singleton rips into Trump questioning Kamala Harris' ethnicity at the NABJ: "You need to be careful with this crap! That‘s just the only way to say this... I can't even say what I really want to say about this!" pic.twitter.com/2dHC4OUymf
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 31, 2024
But it does beg the question why Trump took this route and how Harris goes at this. If she blows up and calls him racist or implies so, there's more than enough material to really do some damage to her credibility within the black community by exposing just how little she's identified with them since she started her political career.
She's not very likable whatever flag she's flying, be it heritage or ideology. Old flame Willie Brown worried about that when she first wanted to run for president.
...Brown was far more candid about Harris at lunch, before the debate, when Biden’s renomination seemed inevitable and his vice president was more unpopular than he was.
Brown worried out loud that Harris had “the Hillary syndrome” — that “people don’t like her” — and fretted it was not fixable. Thinking through Harris’s future if Biden were to lose, Brown said: “You need a Black woman on every goddamn corporate board in America!”
None of the reports nor her own conversation ever discuss her black heritage, nor does it ever share the stage with her Indian roots. And I am giving her much-ridiculed "FWEEDOM!" from the depths of the stroller story as well as the staged Kwanzaa shot the same side-eye I gave them originally. It's hard to grow up celebrating a "holiday" as a child that wasn't even invented until two years after your birth and didn't become a thing for another 15 years or so.
Sure, girlfriend.
It does make me curious how many people like me will be today years old when they first learn any of this.
The Democrat battle cry has gone out for sure, though. The CBS Evening News had their hair on fire and the knives were ready for tonight's broadcast.
Trump makes false claims about Harris's racial identity in contentious NABJ interview
In a combative interview at an event hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago, former President Donald Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris's racial identity, falsely stating that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee only recently "became a Black person." Nikole Killion reports.
WOOF
The disdain and disgust dripping throughout the piece's tone is something else.
And then there's...well. *sigh*
I got nothin’. lol pic.twitter.com/BySkDNo98K
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) August 1, 2024
As my friend Sam says, I got nuthin'.
JFC I'm so confused. And probably racist.
If you don't vote for Kamala Harris, you're not Indian.
— Green Lives Matter (@Ultrafrog17) July 31, 2024
Come on, girlfriend - even Nancy Pelosi has pictures kneeling in a kente cloth.
Dang Trump.
He doesn't ever stir the pot unless he's already got the stock inside.
Hopefully, this doesn't boil over as an unforced error.
As a black man, I’m equally offended. She’s just picks up our culture and identity when it fits her political needs.
— Rob Coates 🇺🇸 (@LuckyHippie926) July 31, 2024
What a disgrace.
Why do I feel like it won't?
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