The National Association of Black Journalists is facing backlash after announcing Monday that Donald Trump would take part in a Q&A at the organization’s annual convention.
The group announced the session late Monday, with the convention set to kick off Wednesday in Chicago. The former president will discuss issues facing the Black community through questions from ABC News, FOX News and Semafor journalists.
The announcement quickly prompted backlash from some Black journalists who said they were “disgusted” and expressed concerns over Trump’s rhetoric toward Black people.
Organizers with the Black Voters Matter Fund, a voting rights advocacy group founded in 2016 amid Trump’s ascent, called the decision “unacceptable” in a post on X on Tuesday.
“It’s a slap in the face to every Black journalist and the communities we serve,” the post read.
Meanwhile, Washington Post columnist and global opinions editor Karen Attiah said Tuesday on X that she was stepping down from her position as co-chair of the convention. “While my decision was influenced by a variety of factors, I was not involved or consulted with in any way with the decision to platform Trump in such a format,” she added in a follow-up post.
Attiah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Leaders in the organization defended the decision to host the Republican presidential nominee. NABJ President Ken Lemon said on social media that the organization invites the presidential nominees from both major parties every election year, and added that it had invited presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Harris cited logistical reasons — including attending the funeral for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and choosing a running mate — for why she would not be able to the attend the convention this year, according to a source familiar with her plans. The source added that NABJ turned down Harris' offer of a virtual discussion or holding one later.
Both George W. Bush and John Kerry spoke at the NABJ’s 2004 convention, and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did so in 2007, according to The Hill. Clinton returned for a speech and a news conference in 2016. Joe Biden spoke at the virtual conference held in 2020; Trump did not.
Tia Mitchell, co-chair of the convention, echoed Lemon’s explanation and said she had helped organize the Q&A “to create opportunities for journalists to interview the potential next President.”
Critics said these explanations did not adequately address concerns from journalists and other NABJ members who balked at giving Trump such a high-profile platform at the convention, given his history, in their view, of emboldening white supremacists, racist rhetoric and laying the groundwork for education restrictions, anti-DEI legislation and anti-LGBTQ laws.
Veteran White House correspondent April Ryan, the 2017 NABJ journalist of the year, wrote in a post Tuesday on X that she objected to Trump’s appearance in Chicago.
“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.”
The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a justice organization, announced in an Instagram post that it would protest Trump’s Chicago visit in a rally on Wednesday.
The event comes as Trump works to ramp up support among Black voters and polls suggest younger Black voters are showing more openness to him as a candidate. As a result, some critics suggested Trump only accepted the NABJ’s invitation to lure Black voters. Trump’s team also announced the event on his website, writing that Trump has “accomplished more for Black Americans than any other president in recent history.”
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