Black Journalists’ Association Says Yes to Trump but Snubs Harris

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) declined a request by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to appear at this year’s convention, a source familiar with the plans told The Daily Beast.

The news, first reported by theGrio, came hours after Karen Attiah, a co-chair of this year’s NABJ convention, stepped down after the organization announced Donald Trump would appear for a moderated conversation at the Chicago event.

The Trump conversation, focused on “the most pressing issues facing the Black community,” with ABC News reporter Rachel Scott, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, and Semafor reporter Kadia Goba, has caused significant outrage among NABJ members.

Harris could not speak in person at the convention due to logistical reasons, including the funeral of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and finalizing a vice presidential nominee, the source said. She offered to appear for a virtual fireside chat during the convention or an in-person conversation at a later date, but the convention’s organizers declined. NABJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Attiah, a Washington Post columnist, said her choice to step down was influenced by “a variety of factors,” though she did not directly attribute it to the group’s decision to host the former president. She said she was not consulted about the move to platform Trump.

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“To the journalists interviewing Trump, I wish them the best of luck,” she wrote in an X post. Attiah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NABJ President Ken Lemon and convention co-chair Tia Mitchell have defended the decision in social media posts, saying it conformed to a tradition of inviting presidential candidates during an election year and it was an opportunity for Trump to face questions from top Black journalists.

“Some of yall need to take a step back and ask why you’re questioning why a group of JOURNALISTS wants to ask former and possibly future President Trump questions,” Mitchell, a Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote on X. “Do you hear yourselves?”

(Update: in a Wednesday statement Lemon said the organization was “in talks about virtual options in the future and are still working to reach an agreement,” with Harris. Of Trump’s appearance, he wrote: “I consulted with a group of our Founders and past NABJ Presidents Tuesday on-site in Chicago, and as a group, we affirmed that the invitation to former President Trump was in line with NABJ’s usual practices since 1976. It has always been our policy to ensure that candidates know that an invitation is not an endorsement. We also agreed that while this race is much different — and contentious—so are the consequences. While we acknowledge the concerns expressed by our members, we believe it is important for us to provide our members with the opportunity to hear directly from candidates and hold them accountable.”)

A number of Black journalists aired their grievances about the programming move on X, noting Trump’s penchant for racist comments and attacking Black journalists.

Roland Martin, host of #RolandMartinUnfiltered and founder of BlackStarNetwork, told the Daily Beast that he has been a NABJ member for 35 years.

“I was incensed,” he said. “The reality is you can make an argument why you invite both nominees. I believe he fits in a different category because of his past attacks on journalists, his attacks on the Fourth Estate, but also his very specific attacks on NABJ Black female members.”

Martin raised additional concerns that the panel set to interview the former president did not include Black men or members of Black-owned media.

“Chicago has a deep, rich history of the Black press,” he said. “Chuck Stone, who was the editor of The Defender, is a founder of NABJ. … You have this rich history, and we have a panel, and not a single person from the Black press is on this panel. I have relayed those issues to NABJ leadership.”

Martin also told the Daily Beast that he heard from both the NABJ and the Biden campaign about a month ago that President Biden would deliver a fireside chat at the convention. The source familiar with Harris’ plans confirmed that Biden had arranged to attend before dropping out of the race.

Martin added that he had been in touch with both White House staff and Harris campaign staff and, as of 1:30 on Tuesday afternoon, a final decision about whether or not Harris would appear had not yet been made.

April Ryan, a White House reporter for theGrio and a 2017 NABJ “Journalist of the Year,” condemned NABJ’s platforming by citing the attacks she faced from Trump directly.

“The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact,” she wrote on X. “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.”

Donnell Suggs, the editor of the Black-owned Atlanta Voice newspaper, told The Daily Beast that the decision to platform Trump was “ridiculous,” and he questioned why the convention was choosing to give “the loudest person in the room” a microphone.

“He is someone that has pointed out Black reporters that come to the White House, that particularly are female, and said to them that ‘they are nasty,’ or ‘that was a racist question,’ or ‘you’ve got a stupid question,’” Suggs said.

Suggs also claimed that Harris’ record-breaking fundraising numbers and Zoom-shattering voter engagement calls with Black Americans frightened Trump’s team into accepting NABJ’s invitation.

“He didn't find time in 2016, ironically,” Suggs said. “But now that you think you need to combat this Black tidal wave that’s going to be supporting Kamala Harris, you accept an invite to speak at the Black journalist convention.”

Suggs wasn’t the only journalist who questioned the timing of the former president’s press conference. Many reporters don’t touch down in the Windy City until Wednesday evening for the convention’s official kickoff party, meaning the majority of attendees are unlikely to make the speech unless they change their flight details.

“I’m disappointed that in a space where so many queer and trans members still feel vulnerable will now feel even more unsafe due to Trump being invited and the possibility of his most vicious followers coming to the hotel to support him,” Femi Redwood, the chair of NABJ’s LGBTQ+ task force, wrote on X.

Jemele Hill, a contributing writer at The Atlantic, said she didn’t have a problem with the decision to host Trump under “the right circumstances,” but she said she wasn’t aware how “right” this year’s conditions were.

“A sham of an interview will destroy the organization’s credibility,” she wrote on X. “If the majority of NABJ’s membership is against Trump being there, the organization should listen. You have to answer to your membership and you run the risk of permanently disengaging folks. Trump isn’t worth that.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Janiyah Thomas said the campaign is attending this year because it is “important to give Black journalists more access” to nominees so that they can better reach Black voters.

“Tomorrow’s event once again proves that, unlike Kamala Harris, President Trump is willing to meet people where they are to earn their trust and support,” Thomas said.

Harris did not appear at NABJ’s convention when she was a presidential candidate in 2019, though she did appear virtually as vice president two years later, according to ABC. Other politicians have previously spoken at the NABJ convention in-person, including former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.