Washington, DC —Donald Trump’s offensive appearance at a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) dominated follow-up news coverage (see here for the immediate reaction of Vanessa Cárdenas, as quoted by the New York Times).
Of note and worth specific mention was the way the attendees rejected Trump’s attempts to inject the false non-citizen voting lie and related obvious falsehoods designed to drive a divide between Black and Brown voters. As the Washington Post recapped, for example:
“Throughout, the crowd had gasped repeatedly at Trump’s answers and sometimes made sounds of protest.
‘False! False! False!’ one attendee yelled out, as Trump falsely asserted that undocumented immigrants arriving in the United States are ‘taking votes away from all of the people in this room.’
‘You just lie!’ one audience member said.”
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Donald Trump is floundering, he has no solutions, no ideas to address the issues Black and Brown communities care about – whether on immigration, job creation, or fair wages. Instead, he relies on his tried-and-true strategy of trying to sow divisions and stoke fear. Most Americans believe that diversity is a strength of our nation, and they reject the ugly and obvious attempts by Trump to divide us, particularly at a venue like NABJ. The audible rejection by journalists and other attendees in the room of Trump’s non-citizen voting lies and attempts to inject the ‘replacement’ theory into his remarks was a heartening reminder of that point.
All in all, the only surprising part of Donald Trump’s performance yesterday was that some observers appear to be surprised that Trump was deliberately racist, provocative, and divisive. Maybe they bought the canard that Trump would be newly chastened and disciplined, or was even capable of being a unifier.
But this is Donald Trump – the same man who spread birther-ism in 2011, the same man who kicked off his presidential campaign by slandering Mexicans as rapists in 2015, the same man whose presidency was filled with talk of ‘shithole countries’ and anti-immigrant animosity and the same man whose 2024 campaign will be as ugly and divisive on issues of race and identity as is possible.
Donald Trump was deliberately provocative and deliberately racist. This is who he is. This is who he will be. No one should be surprised or desensitized or forget the larger stakes for our multi-racial democracy.”
