Trump opens Black journalists conference by calling moderator 'horrible' and 'nasty'
Former President Donald Trump clashed with a moderator at a conference for Black journalists on Wednesday.
Moments after sitting down at the National Association of Black Journalists conference, ABC News anchor Rachel Scott asked Trump about his history of insulting the Black community.
"I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room, sir," Scott said. "You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals, from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four Congresswomen of color who were American citizens to go back to where they came from. 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 ask are, quote, stupid and racist," she continued. "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?"
Trump responded with anger.
"Well, first of all, I don't think I've ever been asked a question so in such a horrible manner," he insisted. "You don't even say, hello, how are you? Are you with ABC? Because I think they're a fake news network, a terrible network, and I think it's disgraceful that I came here in good spirit."
The former president claimed he had "done so much for the black population of this country."
"I think it's a very rude introduction," he opined. "I don't know exactly why you would do something like that."
Trump asserted that he had been invited to the event "under false pretense" because Vice President Kamala Harris was not also attending.
"And then you were half an hour late," he complained. "I think it's a very nasty question. I have answered the question. I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln."
Scott posed a second question after Trump called her "a disgrace."
"Some of your own supporters, including Republicans on Capitol Hill, have labeled Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the first Black and Asian-American woman to serve as vice president, to be on a major party ticket as a DEI hire," the ABC News anchor said. "Is that acceptable language to you? And will you tell those Republicans and those supporters to stop it?"
But Trump demanded Scott define DEI, which she did.
"Diversity, equity, inclusion," she said. "Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a Black woman?"
The former president suggested that Harris was not Black because she had previously promoted her "Indian heritage."
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"I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black," he remarked. "And now she wants to be known as Black."
"She has always identified as a Black," Scott pointed out.
"I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the way," Trump argued. "And then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went — she became a Black person."