CNN senior national correspondent Sara Sidner did her best to make mountains out of molehills on Wednesday’s CNN Newsroom as she reported on a “controversial” news event. That controversy? Donald Trump speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists.
Wasting no time trying to make something of Trump’s appearance, Sidner declared, “Now, what made this clear, that this is part of his, sort of, reach to black Americans, is a statement that he put out after it was announced that he would be speaking at NABJ, and there's certainly a lot of controversy around the fact that he is here and yet, the woman who could become the first black female American to become president is not here.”
Sidner would return to Harris in due course, but in the meantime she sought to do some preemptive fact-checking:
Here's what Donald Trump said after it was announced that he would be speaking to this group of journalists. He said, 'President Trump's accomplished more for black Americans than any other president in recent history by implementing America First policies on the economy, immigration, energy, law and order, et cetera,' which of course can be disputed in the sense when it comes to the economy, when it comes to black Americans, yes, numbers did of unemployment went down during his administration, but they're even lower with the Biden Administration.
Returning to the “controversy” surrounding Trump’s appearance, Sidner hyped, “The controversy still swirling where you are seeing people, members, someone who was the vice chair of the board of this conference, stepping down partly due to this decision to have only one of the candidates.”
Sidner then undermined everything she just reported on, “The reason for the reason for the one candidate, NAJB says, is pretty clear, that they reached out to both candidates and they reached out to Kamala Harris before Joe Biden stepped down, they say, and that her coms people said, ‘Look, her schedule couldn’t accommodate this.’ She was not able to do it virtually, she was not able to do it in person, but Donald Trump ended up accepting, so they went with the candidate that said they could be here even though the other presumptive nominee cannot.”
Whether Harris genuinely has a scheduling conflict or that is just an excuse to avoid questions doesn’t really matter. She was offered a spot, but she declined, so it is not Trump’s or the NABJ's fault he’s the only one showing up.
Sidner then played a clip of NABJ President Ken Lemon defending the move to host Trump on the grounds that it provides them with a good opportunity to “vet the candidate right here on our ground.”
Despite all that, however, Sidner still tried to gin up controversy, “And there are a couple of those controversies he has talked about Chicago very negatively over the years. So, we do expect there to be also protesters here who dislike Donald Trump's platform, but he's also called several black journalists, including our very intelligent Abby Phillip, ‘dumb and stupid’ that I'm sure will also be addressed, well, that's part of why the controversy is swirling here today.”
With that, Sidner tried to imply that some of the criticism of Trump’s appearance is based on the idea that Trump is a racist, but as liberal Washington Post columnist Philip Bump pointed out in 2018, Trump calls everyone stupid: man, woman, black, white, Democrat, Republican, politician, actor, journalist, Trump is an equal opportunist in that respect. It should also be noted that Trump called Phillip's questions "stupid" and President Biden called white guy Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch" in 2022.
Here is a transcript for the July 31 show:
CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta
7/31/2024
10:10 AM ET
SARA SIDNER: Look, it's pretty clear that if you're talking to the National Association of Black Journalists, you are looking to try and encourage black voters to come to your side. He will be sitting down with a panel of journalists from several different news organizations and ask questions. He will also, according to NABJ, be fact-checked in real time. Now, what made this clear, that this is part of his, sort of, reach to black Americans, is a statement that he put out after it was announced that he would be speaking at NABJ, and there's certainly a lot of controversy around the fact that he is here and yet, the woman who could become the first black female American to become president is not here.
Here's what Donald Trump said after it was announced that he would be speaking to this group of journalists. He said, “President Trump's accomplished more for black Americans than any other president in recent history by implementing America First policies on the economy, immigration, energy, law and order, et cetera,” which of course can be disputed in the sense when it comes to the economy, when it comes to black Americans, yes, numbers did of unemployment went down during his administration, but they're even lower with the Biden Administration.
So, some of these things you'll hear in the fact-checks, that's what we're expecting today. But the controversy still swirling where you are seeing people, members, someone who was the vice chair of the board of this conference, stepping down partly due to this decision to have only one of the candidate, but the reason for the reason for the one candidate, NAJB says, is pretty clear, that they reached out to both candidates and they reached out to Kamala Harris before Joe Biden stepped down, they say, and that her coms people said, “Look, her schedule couldn’t accommodate this.”
She was not able to do it virtually, she was not able to do it in person, but Donald Trump ended up accepting, so they went with the candidate that said they could be here even though the other presumptive nominee cannot.
Here is the justification that we’ve been hearing from the president of NAJB and remember, it’s National Association of Black Journalists, he points out the last word in their moniker.
KEN LEMON: We have people whose lives are depending on what happens in November. For us as journalists, people who go into and have very uncomfortable conversations for the sake of our members. This is an important time. This is a great opportunity for us to vet the candidate right here on our ground and that's what we do.
SIDNER: And there are a couple of those controversies he has talked about Chicago very negatively over the years. So, we do expect there to be also protesters here who dislike Donald Trump's platform, but he's also called several black journalists, including our very intelligent Abby Phillip, “dumb and stupid” that I'm sure will also be addressed, well, that's part of why the controversy is swirling here today.
