Valeria Davis-Humphrey from the NABJ Convention: The View from Inside

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Left to Right: NABJ President Ken Lemon addresses the membership to explain the evolution of Trump’s forum appearance; Samples of the discussion going on between NABJ members on social media

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A hush fell over the convention room as ABC News’s senior congressional correspondent  Rachel Scott, Harris Faulkner, anchor of The Faulkner Focus and co-host of Outnumbered on FOX News, and Kadia Goba, politics reporter at Semafor, took their places on stage.

With national news and NABJ livestream camera operators focused to the left of the moderators, Donald Trump emerged from the curtain gap and strode onto the stage, stopping in his characteristic pause anticipating accolades.  Met with the seated silence of nearly 4,000 members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), his demeanor shifted from guarded anticipation to clear annoyance.

Scott and Trump, both bending to span the distance between them without stepping closer to one another, mouthed greetings and quickly shook hands. The convention hall was thick with the energy of emotional restraint.

Then looking straight at the growing scowl on the former president’s face, Scott asked a question with the clarity of a person who had most likely been rebuffed for asking as a member of the national press corps.

Trump immediately pivoted to his first barrage of lie-laced demeaning comments, accusations and attacks. Scott’s refusal to flinch deepened Trump’s scowl and triggered his accordian-player hand gestures. Unintimidated and expressionless despite Trump leaning into an aggressive posture, Scott launched a master’s class in professional journalistic interviewing. It was a vindicating moment for the demeaning disrespect Trump had levelled at the three reporters on the stage.

Before the forum began, NABJ members had countless off-the-record discussions about whether Trump’s appearance would call the organization’s integrity and political objectivity into question. Had NABJ fallen victim to a partisan set-up, designed to abuse its membership given Trump’s anti-Black, anti-journalist and anti-democracy stance? The Washington Post’s Karen Attiah resigned as co-chairperson of the convention’s organizing committee in protest.

The facts behind it all, of course, were uncovered.

According to organization guidelines, NABJ has consistently invited presidential candidates from both parties to participate in a forum at its annual convention. In the past, only Democrats have accepted.

News that only Trump - not presumptive democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris - would speak at the convention, was announced one day before the 2024 convention in Chicago.  VP Harris’ schedule was tight. She had to attend Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s funeral, amid a burgeoning campaign schedule. As an organization, NABJ will continue to discuss the protocol for inviting candidates, to avoid the mistaken impression that an invitation is an endorsement, and perceptions of journalistic bias.

"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," NABJ President Ken Lemon said.

Lemon defended the decision to invite Trump to speak, as continuing a tradition of questioning national political figures.

NABJ also partnered with PolitiFact to fact-check the former president's remarks in real-time. Attempts by Trump’s team to renegotiate the terms of fact-checking resulted in a late start for the forum. Axios reported this after fact-checking Trump’s false accusations that the late start was because NABJ members couldn’t operate the sound system.

Since the July 31 forum in Chicago, Rachel Scott has received death threats, according to Eric Deggans of National Public Radio, because she asked concise and relevant questions, including “Why should Black voters trust you?” Given Trump’s history of inflammatory comments about Black people, Scott quizzed him about whether he believed VP Harris had risen to the top of the Democratic ticket for November’s election solely “because she is a Black woman”.

In response, Trump accused Scott of being “rude” and having presented a “nasty question.” He also didn’t answer any of the three moderators’ questions, as if a room of professional journalists wouldn’t notice.

In the end, Trump predictably became his own worst enemy, and the NABJ candidate forum was a campaign disaster, ending abruptly when his team snatched him off the stage just as Fox’s Harris Faulkner tried to ask about Project 2025. Trump had torched the forum in 35 minutes by lying, meandering through irrational non-answers and questioning Harris’ race.

In addition to lashing out at Black female reporters and Harris, Trump’s attack on any major journalist who dared to confirm the undeniable inappropriateness of his behavior at NABJ, dominated election news for nearly a week.

The mainstream news coverage was, and continues to be, an affirmation of NABJ’s legitimacy as an organization of trained and disciplined Black professionals. Let’s just say we know how to do our Black jobs.

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