As Nicole Lafond and Emine Yücel note, when Kamala Harris began her run, Republican leaders in Congress put out a memo urging GOP folks not to attack Harris on grounds of race or gender.
But no one seems to have given Trump that memo, as Lafond and Yücel demonstrate by highlightling what Trump said at NABJ yesterday.
"Harris looks like his worst nightmare: a former attorney general of California in heels, slick, telegenic, with a corporate image and politics that have been largely in the centre – so that when Trump says 'She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country,' he sounds ridiculous."
~ Emma Brockes
"And while Harris has, to date, not been a particularly assured politician, she seems to know instinctively how to handle Trump. With a smirk that does more work than all of Clinton or Warren’s earnest attempts to debate him, Harris meets Trump at the demotic level and states the bleeding obvious: 'These guys are weird.' It works because it’s true, but also because she’s doing the thing Trump hates above all other things: she’s laughing at him."
"The media has done a great job overlooking Trump’s statements and cherry-picking one reasonable thing he said out of a pile of excrement proves he’s a changed man. But they’re really going to have a hard time with this one."
~ Mark Sumner
"The campaign knew it was a disaster before it was even over. What was supposed to be an hour-long question-and-answer session was abruptly cut short by Trump’s campaign after just 34 minutes—'an indication of how much of a train wreck it was for him,' tweeted Axios reporter Sophia Cai, 'and also how good the questioning was.'”
~ Joan McCarter
"Doubtless his many supporters will take his performance as confirmation of his fitness for the fight against Harris. But for the many in the room who could see past the bluster, Trump looked for all the world like an old crank who can barely hear or have a thought without somehow making it racist. Asked by Goba how he’d know if he was too old to stay in the job, Trump didn’t hesitate to take another shot at Scott."
~ Andrew Lawrence
#Trump #NABJ #racism #misogyny
/27
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/31/trump-nabj-black-journalists-chicago
"I also just want to say one quick thing about this invitation.'To the president and board of NABJ: Y'all got played.""
Joy Ann Reid followed those statements by saying Trump showed up at NABJ for three reasons:
1. "To try to dispel the notion he's scared to debate a Black woman."
2. "To steal the attention that Vice President Kamala Harris has hijacked from him."
3. "To create clips to play for his very white, very right wing MAGA fan base."
"If you were working for the Donald Trump campaign, when you were watching this, it was like watching a baby crawl across the interstate at night. You couldn't look! And they could not get him off that stage fast enough. And this was a long campaign. You can't hide Donald Trump."
~ Former GOP consultant Stuart Stevens
"Trump’s racist attack on Harris does deserve media coverage. But Trump’s new promise to pardon violent felons who brutally attacked police officers on his behalf demands more. There should be countless news stories detailing the severity of their attacks. Every Republican officeholder appearing on TV should be called to respond to this. And we must press the media to do just that."
~ Dean Obeidallah
#Trump #NABJ #racism #misogyny
/30
https://deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/corporate-medias-focus-on-trumps
Why did Trump claim at NABJ that Kamala Harris is not black, and then double down on that claim last night? Bill Kristol thinks he did so for this reason:
"Trump may well have decided that to win, he has to increase the salience of race in this campaign. Sadly, this is not a new gambit in American politics. And sadly, it sometimes works."
And:
"Harris shouldn’t be left alone to defend herself."
"For a fun trip back down memory lane, back in 2020 when Democrats were calling Trump racist, his campaign pointed to his old contributions to Harris as proof he was not.
'Kamala Harris is a Black Woman and he donated to her campaign. So I hope we can squash this racism argument.'"
~ Tyson Brody quoted by Bill Kristol
"The myth of the newer, more disciplined Trump came to an end yesterday when he lost his marbles on stage during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. …
While the whole New Trump thing is way overstated, it’s been a very long time since he has imploded in public like he did yesterday. Trump lost his shit for one reason — he’s scared of Kamala Harris."
~ Dan Pfeiffer
#Trump #NABJ #racism #misogyny
/33
https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/trumps-disastrous-interview-shows
"This isn’t your grandpa or your crazy uncle raving in the privacy of your holiday dinner.
It’s the former president of the United States turning his cult and his campaign’s hundreds of millions of dollars against people of color on a public stage in the middle of a presidential campaign. It’s a way of declaring open season on vulnerable minorities."
~ David Kurtz
#Trump #NABJ #racism #misogyny
/34
https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/of-course-trumps-a-racist-but-its
"I take consolation in the fact that Trump’s attacks and behavior during his ill-fated session with the National Association of Black Journalists will weaken him among undecided voters and with whatever Trump-curious minorities that his campaign has spent years cultivating."
~ Jay Kuo
#Trump #NABJ #racism #misogyny
/35
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/just-when-you-think-he-cant-go-lower
"Trump was not speaking to [NABJ] but to a MAGA audience beyond the Hilton Chicago that loves mocking people of color. He was having jaded fun. ...
As offensive as all that was to the Black men and women staring in his direction, Trump knew it was getting a belly laugh with his crowd, who can’t get enough of that stuff."
~ Colbert King
#Trump #NABJ #racism #misogyny
/36
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/31/trump-harris-nabj-black-lies/
"As I’ve argued before, when Trump says something bogus, you stop him right there. I’ve been arguing since at least 2017 that anyone with a chance to interview Trump owes it to the public to confront him with the facts he so routinely denies. …
The obligation for our major news organizations is not just to transmit Trump’s messages, but to explain what’s so toxic about them."
~ Dan Froomkin
#Trump #NABJ #racism #misogyny
/37
https://criticalread.substack.com/p/the-media-is-complicit-in-spreading
"My personal theory for why [journalists] hold on to this ridiculous notion [that Trump will 'pivot'] is that Trump secretly being a normal human being beneath his bluster will justify the votes that the parents and grandparents of many national reporters have made in Trump’s favor.
If Trump isn’t really a bigot, then Mee-maw is absolved."
~ Oliver Willis
P.S. I think Oliver Willis is absolutely right about this.
#Trump #NABJ #racism #misogyny
/38
https://www.oliverexplains.com/p/trump-cant-stop-showing-his-ass-and
Statement from the Harris campaign re: Trump's performance at NABJ:
"Today's tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump's MAGA rallies this entire campaign. It's also exactly what the American people will see from across the debate stage as Vice President Harris offers a vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans. All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on September 10."
