Donald Trump sat for an interview at the annual National Association of Black Journalists meeting on Wednesday.
It didn’t go well!
Trump was combative. He lied. He insisted he was being poorly treated. And, of course, he suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris has, only recently, said that she was black. (Not true!)
My friend at the Listening Post got me a copy of the transcript of Trump’s interview. I went through the whole thing and pulled out the lines you need to see.
They’re below.
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To the Lines!
“Well, first of all, I don't think I've ever been asked a question so — in such a horrible manner, a first question.”
The question from ABC’s Rachel Scott? She simply listed a number of things Trump had said and done in the past — from telling four female Members of Congress to go back to where they came from to his dining with a white supremacist. And away we go!
“You don't even say, hello, how are you?”
It’s a media interview, not a social call.
“I love the black population of this country.”
“I think it's a very rude introduction. I don't know exactly why you would do something like that.”
What Trump’s annoyance exposes is that he has NO real idea how the actual media does its job. He expects to be courted, to be fawned over — as he is when he does interviews with Fox News and the like. That’s not how real reporters actually do things — with ANY politician.
“You invited me under false pretense. And then you said you can't do it with Zoom. Well, you know, where's Zoom?”
Where, indeed is Zoom.
“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. That's my answer.”
Truly an incredible answer. The guy who ended slavery. And then Donald Trump. But it’s close.
“And for you to start off a question-and-answer period, especially when you're 35 minutes late because you couldn't get your equipment to work, in such a hostile manner, I think it's a disgrace.”
How dare you question me in, um, an interview! Also, your equipment doesn’t work!
“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.”
“When she happened to turn black.” Harris, not for nothing, went to Howard University, a historically black institution. She graduated in 1986.
“So I don't know, is she Indian or is she black? But you know what? I respect either one.”
[narrator voice] No, he doesn’t.
“Because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went, she became a black woman.”
Harris’ mother is South Asian. Her father is Jamaican. She is of mixed race. Like 34 million people in the United States. Truly incredible idiocy here from Trump.
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