Former President Donald J. Trump will take questions on Wednesday in Chicago from members of the National Association of Black Journalists, appearing before a skeptical conference of reporters in the city that will host the Democratic National Convention in less than three weeks.
The appearance of the Republican presidential nominee at 1 p.m. Eastern time has already divided the association, prompting a co-chairwoman of the convention, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, to step down from her post and eliciting a warning from a prominent member, April Ryan, that Mr. Trump’s White House was threatening to Black women.
“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,” Ms. Ryan, the White House correspondent for The Grio, a media company geared toward Black Americans, wrote on the social platform X.
But leaders of the association said journalists should not shy from interviewing major party candidates for the presidency. The association also invited Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, but the group’s president, Ken Lemon, said Wednesday morning that she was not available.
“We are in talks about virtual options in the future and are still working to reach an agreement,” he wrote.
For Mr. Trump, there appears to be no downside: A hostile greeting would feed his efforts to play supporters off the media. A warmer welcome would help his outreach to Black voters.
The conference’s description says the session will “concentrate on the most pressing issues facing the Black community.” Harris Faulkner, a Fox News anchor; Kadia Goba, a politics reporter at Semafor; and Rachel Scott, an ABC News correspondent, will moderate the session. The event is expected to be livestreamed on the organization’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
