Donald Trump claimed that Kamala Harris had misled voters about her race during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago on Wednesday.
Issued on: 01/08/2024 -
Video by:FRANCE 24
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump questioned whether his Democratic rival Kamala Harris is "Black" during a contentious interview at the country's largest annual gathering of Black journalists on Wednesday.
"Is she Indian or is she Black?" Trump said of his opponent in the presidential race, drawing a smattering of jeers from an audience of about 1,000 people. "She was Indian all the way, and all of a sudden she made a turn and became a Black person."
Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, has long self-identified as both Black and Asian. She is the first Black and Asian American to serve as U.S. vice president.
"What he just said is repulsive," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing in response to Trump's remarks. "It's insulting."
Since launching her White House campaign earlier this month, Harris has faced a barrage of sexist and racist attacks online, with some far-right accounts questioning her racial identity.
Republican Party leaders have urged lawmakers to refrain from personal attacks and focus on her policy positions.
Trump himself has used personal insults against Harris and said he was going to ignore advice that he tone down his rhetoric in this campaign. "I'm not gonna be nice!" he told supporters at one campaign rally.
Trump also declined to say on Wednesday whether Harris was a "DEI hire," as some Republicans have claimed, saying, "I don't know."
DEI stands for "diversity, equity and inclusion" initiatives aimed at increasing representation of women and people of color in the workforce to address longstanding inequities and discrimination. The term "DEI hire" is now used to suggest a person is not qualified and was chosen on the basis of race or gender.
In response, Trump called the question "horrible," "hostile" and a "disgrace" and described ABC as a "fake" network.
"I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln," he boasted.
Trump repeated a line from the presidential debate in June, claiming that migrants crossing the U.S. southern border would take away "Black jobs," a term that drew criticism from some Black leaders.
"What exactly is a 'Black job,' sir?" Scott asked him. "A Black job is anybody with a job," Trump replied.
When asked about his position on granting police officers immunity following the death of Sonya Massey, a Black woman who was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy in Illinois, Trump acknowledged that he didn't know much about the case -drawing some gasps from the crowd - but added that "it didn't look good to me."
The interview began more than an hour late, which the Trump campaign said was due to problems with the event's audio equipment. An NABJ spokesperson did not immediately comment on what caused the delay. The session, originally scheduled for an hour, ended abruptly after 30 minutes when the campaign said he was out of time, according to Scott.
Trump's invitation had received a backlash from some members, prompting a co-chair of the convention to step down in protest. During the interview, some of Trump's false statements were met with murmurs and laughter from the crowd.
At one point, someone yelled out, "Sir, have you no shame?" before others shushed him.
Leah Mallory, a 21-year-old at Fordham University, described the conversation as "unreal."
"I honestly feel like it wasn't as conducive as we hoped it would be," she said. "I feel like what we heard were several things that he said before, and there were questions that weren't fully answered."
Courting black voters
Trump has been actively courting Black voters and has held events in cities with large Black populations, including Atlanta, where he plans a rally on Saturday.
He had made inroads with Black men in particular after President Joe Biden, his former Democratic opponent, struggled to mobilize Black voters, traditionally the most loyal Democratic voting bloc. Biden won Black voters 92%-8% over Trump in 2020, according to Pew Research.
But Biden's decision to step down in favor of Harris could make it more challenging for Trump to hold his gains. The presidential race is likely to come down to narrow margins in a handful of battleground states. A national Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Trump leading Harris 43%-42%, within the poll's margin of error.
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The Black journalists' association, founded in 1975, regularly invites presidential candidates to address its annual gathering, but Trump was the first Republican to accept the offer since George W. Bush in 2004.
The association's president, Ken Lemon, said in a statement, "While we acknowledge the concerns expressed by our members, we believe it is important for us to provide our members with the opportunity to hear directly from candidates and hold them accountable."
Trump frequently goes after the media on the campaign trail, calling news outlets the "fake news," and sparred often with members of the White House press corps during his 2017-2021 presidency.
Harris, who did not attend the convention, is scheduled to speak to a Black sorority in Houston later on Wednesday.
N-word political committee materializes during Trump interview with Black reporters
Alexandria Jacobson, Investigative Reporter
July 31, 2024 
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks with Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago on Wednesday.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO — In the midst of former President Donald Trump's interview today with Black journalists, a person created a federal super PAC that uses the N-word, according to an official filing with the Federal Election Commission that Raw Story reviewed.
A statement of organization for "N----- for Trump" was filed at 2:35 p.m. ET Wednesday with the FEC, the documents indicate.
The treasurer, listed as "Mitchell, Jeremiya, Tommy" of Brewton, Ala., did not immediately respond to Raw Story's request for comment at the email listed in the filing.
On Thursday, Jeremiya Mitchell, the creator of the PAC, told Raw Story that the filing is legitimate.
"The idea behind N--- for Trump, I saw the 'White Dudes for Harris' thing, and it was so cheap. It's like a slap in the face," Mitchell told Raw Story in a phone interview. "This is kind of like the other side of the coin to that because too often Black men are overlooked and disregarded completely when it comes to politics, because nobody gives a f--- about us really."
Spokespeople for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Raw Story's request for comment.
The FEC declined to comment on specific committees but shared that the agency has a "verification process for potentially false and fictitious filings," said Judith Ingram, a spokesperson for the FEC, via email.
Trump's tumultuous interview in Chicago at a National Association of Black Journalists conference included the former president questioning whether presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris — the vice president since 2021 — is Black.
Trump's nephew, Fred C. Trump III, also accused Donald Trump of having used the N-word during a tirade in the 1970s, according to a book published last week. Trump's campaign denied the accusation as "completely fabricated and total fake news of the highest order."
Weaponizing FEC filings
While the Mitchell said the "N----- for Trump" PAC filing with the FEC is legitimate, political provocateurs and pranksters sometimes create fake political committees as the filings are relatively easy to generate and automatically published to the FEC's government website, FEC.gov.
"The FEC makes it very simple. They have a great online portal that literally, a kid, could go create a PAC," Mitchell told Raw Story. "It's almost scary, but a lot of people don't even put in the effort to learn about what a PAC is, to even go take this next step to create one."
RELATED ARTICLE: 'That's a lie': The 10 quotes Trump said to Black journalists that led to outbursts
A political committee registered with the FEC in June indicated that Trump would name his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, as his vice presidential running mate, which Trump's campaign manager confirmed to Raw Story as "fraud." Trump named Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate during the Republican National Convention in mid-July.
Numerous other campaigns have experienced fraudulent FEC filings.
President Joe Biden, who has since dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, endured the creation of fake political committees in his name.
Former Vice President Mike Pence needed to quash premature rumors of his 2024 presidential run because of a fraudulent of a federal political committee created in 2022.
Such fake FEC documents have caused public confusion and even threatening situations that led to racist screeds or doxxing of private individuals.
The FEC prohibits other persons from "misrepresenting themselves as speaking, writing or otherwise acting for or on behalf of any candidate or political party for the purpose of soliciting contributions."
However, fraudsters often only receive sternly worded letters about the violation.
The article was updated on Aug. 1, 2024, with comment from Jeremiya Mitchell and the Federal Election Commission.
Alexandria Jacobson is a Chicago-based investigative reporter at Raw Story, focusing on money in politics, government accountability and electoral politics. Prior to joining Raw Story in 2023, Alex reported extensively on social justice, business and tech issues for several news outlets, including ABC News, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. She can be reached at alexandria@rawstory.com. More about Alexandria Jacobson.
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