Hoo, boy, did Trump step in it today. I believe this to be the entire Q and A at today’s National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago. I haven’t been able to watch it all the way through.
It goes off the rails in the opening moments and remains ghastly. I assume Trump wanted to be seen standing up to “the Blacks” and putting them in their place. If he thought this performance might win him some Black votes he really is atomic crazy.
Here’s just a little bit of the dialogue.
SCOTT: Some of your own supporters, including Republicans on Capitol Hill, have labeled Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the first black and Asian American woman to serve as vice president on a major party ticket as a DEI hire. Is that acceptable language to you? And will you tell those Republicans and those supporters to stop it?
TRUMP: How do you how do you define DEI? Go ahead.
SCOTT: Diversity, equity, inclusion.
TRUMP: Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Is that what your definition is?
SCOTT: That is…
TRUMP: Give me a definition. Would you give me a definition? Give me a definition.
SCOTT: Sir I’m asking you a question.
TRUMP: You have to define it. Define it for me.
SCOTT: I just defined it, sir. Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman?
TRUMP: Well, I can say I think it’s maybe a little bit different. So, I’ve known her for a long time. Indirectly. Not directly, very much. And 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. And now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?
SCOTT: She has always identified as a Black woman —
TRUMP: I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way. And then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.
SCOTT: Just to be clear, sir —
TRUMP: I think somebody should look into that too. When you continue in a very hostile, nasty tone.
At TPM, see Trump Goes Full Racist In Front Of Black Journalists for the highlights, or lowlights if you will. In the video you can hear the audience hooting at him. He is, of course, completely obvlivious to what a complete asshole he is being. He may have succeeded at one thing, which is to steal some media attention away from Kamala Harris. But is all publicity really good publicity?
At Mother Jones, see White Man Tells Black Journalists His Black Opponent Is Not Black. Yeah, he went there.
It looks like all the major media sources are putting this story at the tops of their pages. Of course, his culties won’t understand why this is a big deal.
Update: It appears Trump plans to make Harris’s alleged dishonesty about her race a centerpiece of his campaign. He’s playing it up at a campaign rally tonight.
Trump is reclaiming his place on front pages all across America. And, he got "bothsided". Combine that with his decision to question Harris' blackness (shades of Obama's birth certificate), and we see what the outline for the Republican Presidential campaign is. Let us hope our news media do not let them get away with this.
Considering that President Obama is the most popular living president, ranking twelve spots above Trump in the YouGov ranking, I'm not convinced this is a winning formula. But it makes Trump feel good to put the spotlight on what is (to him) the most critical factors that distinguish them.
Trump – rich white man
Harris – back woman (not rich)
What else matters?
This should be the opening Harris exploits in her stump speech. The above is Trump's entire justification for why he should be POTUS and why Harris is unqualified. Then Harris should pivot to issues that motivate voters, abortion, women rights, taxes, inflation, jobs…. and the Biden Harris record. It is a record she can run on. Note that where she talks substance about issues, Trump rambles about sinking electric boats and sharks…
And go to DEI. What the hell is wrong with diversity (unless you're a white nationalist – what they used to call KKK) What's wrong with equity? It means fair. I guess that's threatening if you've been getting more than your fair share. Or paying less than your fair share. Inclusion. My, GOD. Arguing against inclusion is arguing for exclusion – keeping groups out for what??? Not being white enough? We gave that up decades ago!
DEI – Go there!
What happens when perverted elitism meets professional elitism? You get something similar to what one person defined for me as a soap opera for men, "professional" "wrestling" which is really neither. Don the Con vs. NABJ. The event was without the fake referees, and low blows were delivered without even the illusion of an impartial judge.
In Trump's world he is the ultimate politician and politically correct is what he says it is. Why have diversity when he is always right. No consensus is needed just loyalty. The job of journalists is simple, just sing his praises. As the 2025 plan states, any civil service job is to be loyal to him, and not to anything related to science or professional standards. He even gets to decide now who is a good Jew. Now we have RINOS and JINOS. No need for a Rabi to guide, Don the Con's perverted elitism will decide who needs fired or demoted. It is the same old same old from an overplayed shtick of an outdated politician. He is weird and his elitism is perverse.
Really not sure what the hell he's trying to accomplish here. He turns off voters who wouldn't have voted for him anyway, and he fires up voters who were going to vote for him anyway. Doesn't gain anything, except of course he becomes the lead story again after getting bumped by Kamala and J.D. (which is probably the whole point).
I think Stump did exactly what he wanted to do. He got himself back in the headlines and tried to turn the attention about Harris from her positive momentum to her race. All the while being rude and condescending to 3 Black women. His base will love it and the mainstream media repeated his racist lies all night long. He knows how to program his media coverage.
Yeah, Trump was rude to three "sisters" about a fourth "sister." No way to keep track but I'd guess that Black preachers from Mississippi to Illinois will be rocking on Sunday. I can't recall the election but black female turnout has changed the outcome of elections. Turnout – that means getting angry and getting out there. Keep going with the KKK stuff about Kamala.
Trump took the headlines. Others have observed it will fire up much of the base and offend a lot of moderate, including moderate white, voters. It's the Black vote that will really change and it could bite Trump in the place he sits. Two states – Georgia and Virginia. Trump could lose them both on the black vote.
Others have observed – the stunt was designed to grab the daily news cycle. It did but the strategy made Kamala the victim of the racial slur. SO Trump didn't take the spotlight off her kike he might have with the promise that Mexico will pay for the wall.
JD tried to claim that the prisoner swap with Russia today was actually because of Trump. (I find it interesting that Putin gave Biden this win.) Trump signalled that only he could engineer the release of the WSJ writer that Russia grabbed. The promise by Trump was that he'd get him back if he is elected. There's a big middle finger to Trump from the Kremlin. That or Putin got somebody back that he wanted very badly now.
BTW, that prisoner swap should take the news cycle tomorrow. Hopefully, Biden and Harris can get a photo op with the Americans who are out. Tuesday Harris did an event in GA and Trump will be at the SAME auditorium Saturday. Harris filled it to the rafters and there's video of it. If Trump can't, THAT should be a story.
Excuse me, I'm tired. I meant Georgia and North Carolina. Though Trump hoped Virginia was in play, I doubt it after his racial attacks.
"he stunt was designed to grab the daily news cycle"
Certainly a big part of it but I think he is also trying to goad her into defending her racial heritage instead of her policies, hopefully she doesn't take the bait.
distract, distract, distract