By Trevor Hunnicutt
CHICAGO (Reuters) – donald trump speaks at the nation’s largest annual gathering of black journalists on Wednesday, an effort to bolster the Republican presidential candidate’s standing that has divided the group’s members.
Trump’s first appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in Chicago comes a week after the 2024 election was rocked by the president Joe Bidendecision to give up.
The group, founded in 1975, regularly invites presidential candidates to speak at its annual meeting, but Trump is the first Republican to accept the offer since George W. Bush spoke at a conference they co-hosted in 2004.
Trump is scheduled to be interviewed Wednesday afternoon at the event by three black journalists, Harris Faulkner of Fox News, Rachel Scott of ABC News and Kadia Goba of Semafor.
Some members said the group should not offer a platform to Trump, who has denigrated the work of black journalists, sometimes in personal terms. Trump also used racist and dehumanizing language on the campaign trail.
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah stepped down as co-chair of the convention, saying on social media that she had not been “involved or consulted in any way with Trump’s platform decision in this format.”
In Chicago, a protest was expected outside the venue where Trump was scheduled to speak. Trump has regularly criticized the city’s largely Democratic political leadership for levels of violence on Chicago’s streets.
“Here’s what we need to ‘normalize’: candidates for public office in front of journalists, answering questions,” said Leroy Chapman Jr, editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The National Association of Black Journalists includes a range of members, from reporters with traditional media outlets who hope to preserve a working relationship with Trump to Black-owned outlets and journalists whose work takes on a stridently anti-Trump tone.
Trump has made his resentful relationship with many of the media outlets that cover him a focus of his 2016, 2020 and 2024 campaigns and has feuded with members of the White House press corps during his 2017-2021 presidency.
Now, Trump’s campaign faces a likely race against Vice President Kamala Harris as she seeks to be the first Black and Asian woman president, whose prospect has drawn millions of dollars in donations to the Democrat’s campaign.
Biden had planned to attend this year’s convention before abandoning his presidential bid on July 21.
Harris, who was invited, was unable to attend Chicago in person but is willing to participate in a virtual chat with the organization, according to a person familiar with her plans.
As a candidate, Biden had struggled to mobilize black voters, especially black men, allowing Trump to make inroads with that demographic.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Harris slightly increasing her support among black voters over Biden’s numbers at 73%, up from Biden’s 69% in early July and Trump’s support falling from 15% to 10%. Nine in 10 black voters supported Biden in 2020.
Trump has been actively courting black voters and has held events in cities with large black populations, including Atlanta, where he plans a rally on Saturday.
“For us journalists, people who initiate and have very uncomfortable conversations for the sake of our members, this is an important moment,” National Association of Black Journalists President Ken Lemon said on social media. “This is a great opportunity for us to vet the candidate.”
The organization chose the moderators, there were no preconditions for Trump to appear and he was not given questions in advance, according to people familiar with the campaign’s planning for the session.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Tyler Clifford, Bianca Flowers, Tim Reid and Jim Oliphant; Editing by Michael Perry)
