WATCH: Trump speaks at National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) — Donald Trump falsely recommended Kamala Harris had misled voters about her race as the previous president appeared earlier than the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists in Chicago Wednesday in an interview that rapidly turned hostile.

Watch the occasion within the participant above.

The Republican former president wrongly claimed that Harris, the primary Black lady and Asian American to function vp, had up to now solely promoted her Indian heritage.

“I didn’t know she was Black till quite a few years in the past when she occurred to show Black and now she needs to be often called Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump mentioned whereas addressing the group’s annual conference.

Stay truth verify: Trump on the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists convention

Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mom, each immigrants to the U.S. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard College, one of many nation’s most distinguished traditionally Black faculties and universities, the place she additionally pledged the traditionally Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting her colleagues’ laws to strengthen voting rights and reforming policing.

Trump has leveled a variety of criticism at Harris since she changed President Joe Biden atop the seemingly Democratic ticket final week. All through his political profession, the previous president has repeatedly questioned the backgrounds of opponents who’re racial minorities.

Michael Tyler, the communications director for Harris’ marketing campaign, mentioned in a press release that “the hostility Donald Trump confirmed on stage immediately is identical hostility he has proven all through his life, all through his time period in workplace, and all through his marketing campaign for president as he seeks to regain energy.”

“Trump lobbed private assaults and insults at Black journalists the identical means he did all through his presidency — whereas he failed Black households and left the complete nation digging out of the ditch he left us in,” Tyler mentioned. “Donald Trump has already confirmed he can’t unite America, so he makes an attempt to divide us.

White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was requested throughout her briefing with reporters on Wednesday about Trump’s remarks and responded with disbelief, initially murmuring, “Wow.”

Jean-Pierre, who’s Black, referred to as what Trump mentioned “repulsive” and mentioned, “It’s insulting and nobody has any proper to inform somebody who they’re how they determine.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked his opponents and critics on the idea of race. He rose to prominence in Republican politics by propagating false theories that President Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, was not born in the US. “Birtherism,” because it turned recognized, was simply the beginning of Trump’s historical past of questioning the credentials and {qualifications} of Black politicians.

He has denied allegations of racism. And after Biden picked Harris as his working mate 4 years in the past, a Trump marketing campaign spokesperson then pointed to a earlier Trump political donation to Harris as proof that he wasn’t racist.

“The president, as a non-public businessman, donated to candidates throughout all aisles,” the spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, advised reporters. “And I’ll word that Kamala Harris is a Black lady and he donated to her marketing campaign, so I hope we are able to squash this racism argument now,” Pierson mentioned.

Throughout this 12 months’s Republican major, he as soon as referred to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, as “Nimbra.”

Later Wednesday, Trump didn’t repeat his criticism of Harris’ race at a marketing campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, though he referred to as her “phony” and mentioned she has been attempting to alter her picture. He additionally repeatedly mispronounced her first title.

“If she turns into your president, our nation is completed,” Trump charged.

Earlier than he took the stage, Trump’s group displayed what gave the impression to be years-old information headlines describing Harris because the “first Indian-American senator” on the massive display screen within the enviornment.

Trump’s look Wednesday on the annual gathering of Black journalists instantly turned heated, with the previous president sparring with interviewer Rachel Scott of ABC Information and accusing her of giving him a “very impolite introduction” with a tricky first query about his previous criticism of Black folks and Black journalists, his assault on Black prosecutors who’ve pursued instances in opposition to him and the dinner he had at his Florida membership with a white supremacist.

“I feel it’s disgraceful,” Trump mentioned. “I got here right here in good spirit. I really like the Black inhabitants of this nation. I’ve finished a lot for the Black inhabitants of this nation.”

Trump continued his assaults on Scott’s community, ABC Information, which he has been arguing mustn’t host the following presidential debate, regardless of his earlier settlement with the Biden marketing campaign. He additionally a number of instances described her tone and questions as “nasty,” a phrase he used up to now when describing ladies, together with Hillary Clinton and Meghan the Duchess of Sussex.

The Republican additionally repeated his false declare that immigrants within the nation illegally are “taking Black jobs.” When pushed by Scott on what constituted a “Black job,” Trump responded by saying “a Black job is anyone that has a job,” drawing groans from the room.

At one level, he mentioned, “I’ve been one of the best president for the Black inhabitants since Abraham Lincoln.”

The viewers responded with a mixture of boos and a few applause.

Scott requested Trump about his pledge to pardon folks convicted for his or her roles within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol and particularly whether or not he would pardon those that assaulted cops.

Trump mentioned, “Oh, completely I might,” and mentioned, “In the event that they’re harmless, I might pardon them.”

Scott identified they’ve been convicted and subsequently will not be harmless.

“Properly, they have been convicted by a really, very powerful system,” he mentioned.

At one level, when he was defending his supporters who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, he mentioned, “Nothing is ideal in life.”

He in contrast the 2021 rebel to the protests in Minneapolis and different cities in 2020 following the loss of life of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and to newer protests on the Capitol final week by demonstrators against the warfare in Gaza. Trump falsely claiming that nobody was arrested in these different demonstrations and that solely his supporters have been focused.

As Trump made the comparability, a person behind the room shouted out: “Sir, have you ever no disgrace?”

The previous president’s invitation to handle the group sparked an intense inside debate amongst NABJ that spilled on-line. Organizations for journalists of shade usually invite presidential candidates to talk at their summer season gatherings in election years.

As he campaigns for the White Home a 3rd time, Trump has sought to seem exterior his conventional strongholds of assist and his marketing campaign has touted his efforts to attempt to win over Black Individuals, who’ve been Democrats’ most dedicated voting bloc.

His marketing campaign has emphasised his messages on the financial system and immigration as a part of his enchantment, however a few of his outreach has performed on racial stereotypes, together with the suggestion that African Individuals would empathize with the legal expenses he has confronted and his promotion of branded sneakers.

Trump and NABJ even have a tense historical past over his remedy of Black ladies journalists. In 2018, NABJ condemned Trump for repeatedly utilizing phrases comparable to “silly,” “loser” and “nasty” to explain Black ladies journalists.

The vp just isn’t scheduled to seem on the conference, however NABJ mentioned in a press release posted on X that it was in dialog together with her marketing campaign to have her seem both just about or in particular person for a dialog in September.

Harris addressed Trump’s feedback briefly Wednesday night time whereas talking in Houston at a gathering of Sigma Gamma Rho, a traditionally Black sorority in Houston.

“It was the identical outdated present,” she mentioned. “The divisiveness and the disrespect.”

Harris added: “And let me simply say, the American folks deserve higher.”

— Matt Brown and Michelle L. Worth, Related Press

Worth reported from New York. Related Press writers Aaron Morrison and Steve Peoples in New York, Gary Fields in Chicago and Will Weissert and Farnoush Amiri in Washington, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Chris Megerian in Houston contributed to this report.