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Donald Trump's appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago on Wednesday got off to such a late start because he did not want to be fact-checked live, NABJ President Ken Lemon told Axios.
Trump's interview was delayed by more than an hour, and at the time he blamed audio issues for the holdup. "The speaker equipment at the NABJ is not working properly. Don’t blame me for being late!" he posted on Truth Social.
The technical issues were apparent during the interview, but Lemon told Axios that they "were resolved very quickly." Yet, Trump still refused to go on stage if he was going to be fact-checked, Lemon said.
“The bigger problem was his threat not to take the stage when he had agreed to go on," Lemon added. "He did not want to be fact-checked, but we could not let him on the stage without fact-checking."
Lemon's comments square with previous reporting that the interview was delayed because Trump objected to the live fact-check shortly before the event began. Lemon told Axios he was preparing to announce that Trump would not appear because of the fact-checking dispute when the GOP nominee walked on stage.
The Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, disputed Lemon's explanation for the delay to Axios, saying that Trump waited "for close to 40 minutes while audio/technical issues were fixed by NABJ."
ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott attempted to push back on several of Trump's lies onstage, though he repeatedly talked over the interviewers.
The interview's late start seemed to set the tone for Trump's antagonistic approach to what my colleague Ja’han Jones described as a “car crash of an event.” Trump — whose campaign has been trying to win over Black voters — repeatedly attacked Scott and ABC News. He lied exhaustively, and he ranted and deflected when asked straightforward questions. He also unveiled a confounding new line of attack on Vice President Kamala Harris, questioning her biracial identity and accusing her of not really being Black.