Trump spars on stage with black journalists in Chicago

“I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Donald Trump began at this afternoon’s National Association for Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago. ABC News’s Rachel Scott had asked why black voters should trust him in light of his prior attacks on black journalists. “First question, you don’t even say ‘hello, how are you?’” Trump continued. “Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible level.”

Trump went on query his opponent Kamala Harris’s racial ethnicity when asked about her being a DEI hire. “I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I respect either one,” Trump said. The convention’s decision to host Trump prompted backlash from many, who questioned the decision to platform him at the event and wondered how doing so aligned with the conference’s vision.

Members of the NABJ erupted in protest — and the Washington Post columnist co-chair of the event Karen Attiah announced she would step down… although she claims her doing so is unrelated to the decision to have Trump speak at the event. Some pointed to Trump’s alleged past remarks about black women journalists in 2018, where he called April Ryan, a White House correspondent for the Grio, “very nasty” and a “loser.” Several Chicago-based groups announced emergency action to protest Trump’s appearance at the convention.

Former White House spokesperson and senior advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris Symone Sanders blasted the protesters on X: “Some of the best journalists in the country are members of NABJ. So, why wouldn’t they interview Trump?

“Seems like the journalists complaining don’t understand their jobs are to actually ask the questions,” she added. “NABJ didn’t platform Trump. The voters in the Republican primary did. Just like anyone else who is running for president, he should sit for serious interviews and answer real questions. That’s happening Wednesday.”

The session’s goal was to give NABJ members an opportunity “to ask the tough questions that will provide the truthful answers Black Americans want and need to know,” NABJ president Ken Lemon said in a statement announcing the Q&A. As Trump duly noted at the beginning of the event, Harris’s campaign said she could not attend the event because of scheduling conflicts — and Lemon shut down a possibility for a virtual town hall with the VP. Lemon insisted that Trump’s invitation is “absolutely not an endorsement.”

-Elisenne Stoller

On our radar

DON’T BET ON DEBT The Department of Education emailed millions of student loan borrowers today, allowing them to opt out of President Biden’s student debt forgiveness program. The move is an attempted workaround following the Supreme Court’s blocking of the Biden plan.

CUT INTEREST DATE? Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that an interest rate cut “could be on the table” in September. Interest rates have remained at 5.3 percent for a year, a two-decade high. The Fed decided on Wednesday to hold interest rates steady for the time being, but may be able to cut the rates if inflation curbs.

POLL-EASE Eight out of ten polls put Donald Trump in the lead in this presidential race, for an average of two points above Kamala Harris. According to RealClearPolling’s aggregate, only Reuters and Morning Consult have Harris up by one point each. Rasmussen’s poll has Trump seven points in the lead.

Josh Shapiro, smooth operator

It appears Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, where I live, is about to be named Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate.

Shapiro’s name has been on the VP shortlist ever since Joe Biden conceded his re-election campaign to Harris ten days ago, and the speculation intensified this week when the Harris campaign announced it will “stage [Harris’s] first campaign rally with her as-yet-unnamed presidential running mate in Philadelphia next Tuesday,” per the Guardian.

Shapiro stopped briefly in my little hick town a few weeks ago to tout a property tax/rent rebate program for seniors. Standing outside a retirement home, the trim, fifty-one-year-old governor wore a flattering, not-too-formal-for-his-audience of ruralites polo shirt and sporty shoes. He warmed up the crowd with some lighthearted jokes about our longstanding mayor before compassionately emphasizing with the senior citizens gathered there about rising costs and how his administration is determined to help more older folks by lowering the income requirement to these benefits and adding more “relief” to the program.

If I didn’t know any better, I would have been enchanted, too. When I asked him a question afterward about efforts to clean up the abandoned mine lands that scar our region, Shapiro offered some bipartisan platitudes. He was energetic and appealing, and I remarked to a friend later that he reminded me of Barack Obama. This friend (who works in state government) told me he’s heard reports that they were trained by the same speech coach, which would make perfect sense.

Young, nice-looking, lively, Jewish, hip (he wrote on X yesterday that he’s “tired of Trump shit talking America”) — Shapiro would be a smart choice for the Democrats. His list of accomplishments are all the most generic things you’ve ever heard — “lowering costs for families” and “supporting Pennsylvania’s farmers.” But as National Review’s Joseph D’Orsie warns this week, “Don’t fall for Josh Shapiro’s act as a competent moderate.” This governor is a run-of-the-mill, left-leaning career politician, but a charismatic one who could prove dangerous to the GOP.

–Teresa Mull

Kari Lake wins Arizona Republican primary

Kari Lake won Arizona’s Republican Senate primary on Tuesday. She will compete in a general election against Democrat Ruben Gallego in November, and the current polls put Gallego in the lead. Arizona — traditionally a Republican state — has trended more blue of late. The Senate race comes when both the balance of power could be tipped in the Senate and when Arizona could play a key role in determining the presidential election.

Having previously garnered attention as a Phoenix news anchor, Kari Lake gained Donald Trump’s endorsement both for this election and when she ran for governor in 2022. Lake is tough on crime and immigration, but as Axios reported, is also convinced that both her 2022 election and Trump’s 2020 election were stolen — a belief that seems to have exacerbated the divide among Arizona voters. Except for Bill Clinton’s win in 1996, Arizona voted Republican from 1952 through 2016. In 2020, Joe Biden won the state by 0.3 percent.

Ruben Gallego ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. The incumbent Kyrsten Sinema assumed office in 2018 and became the first non-Republican to win an Arizona Senate seat since 1988. Sinema was a Democrat when elected in 2018, but switched to Independent in 2022 after supposedly losing her “Democratic base.” She decided not to run for re-election.

Perhaps because Lake failed to garner enough independent voters in her gubernatorial election, she has made efforts to reach center-right voters during this campaign, with limited results. But nine out of ten polls have Gallego in the lead, with the tenth putting them in a tie and two polls leaving Gallego seven and five points ahead. In opposition to the polls, the National Republican Senatorial Committee told donors last month that the Arizona Senate race was “an absolute toss-up.”

–Ella Johnson