Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for not attending the National Association of Black Journalists Convention and Career Fair.
“Crazy Kamala disrespectfully refused to attend the National Association of Black Journalists Conference, but I am on my way to meet with them now in Chicago. Because of which, she’ll probably end up doing, she has no choice, but remember — it is only for that reason!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris were both invited by the association to have a conversation with journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention and Career Fair on Wednesday with a start time of 1 p.m. EDT.
The event will be co-moderated by Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and Kadia Goba, politics reporter at Semafor.
Ms. Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, was denied participation after she asked if she could attend via Zoom.
In a post a few hours after his first post, Mr. Trump said the association told him and Ms. Harris that they couldn’t participate through Zoom.
“She declined, and I am getting ready to land in Chicago in order to be there. Now I am told that she is doing the Event on ZOOM. WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?” he said.
A post on NABJ’s X page said the association was in a conversation with Ms. Harris’ campaign to schedule “a Q&A session between VP Harris & NABJ, either in person or virtually at some point in September.”
In a third post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump wrote that he was “getting ready to land in Chicago — unlike Crazy Kamala!”
The Harris campaign spoke out about his participation in the event ahead of the convention start, reminding people to “remember exactly who this man is.”
“Not only does Donald Trump have a history of demeaning NABJ members and honorees who remain pillars of the Black press, he also has a history of attacking the media and working against the vital role the press play in our democracy,” said Jasmine Harris, the Harris campaign’s Black media director.
“We know Donald Trump is going to lie about his record and the real harm he’s caused Black communities at NABJ – and he must be called out,” she said.
She also said Black voters will hear from Democratic leaders at the convention “about the promises the Biden-Harris administration has kept to our community.”
Mr. Trump’s invitation to the convention sparked some controversy and criticism from NABJ members
“The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact,” April Ryan, the 2017 NABJ journalist of the year wrote Tuesday on X.
“To have a presumed orchestrated session with the former president is an affront to what this organization stands for and a slap in the face to the Black women journalists (NABJ journalists of the year) who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee who is promoting an authoritarian agenda that plans to destroy this nation and her democracy with his Project 2025,” she said. “I object to this NABJ session with Donald Trump in Chicago.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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