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By Kaitlin Lewis
Night Reporter
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George Conway thanked former President Donald Trump's campaign for agreeing to have the GOP presidential nominee appear Wednesday at the annual National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention, which has brought a heap of backlash against the former president.
Trump took the stage at the NABJ conference for roughly 30 minutes during a question-and-answer session, which was moderated by ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott, Fox News host Harris Faulkner and Semafor reporter Kadia Goba. From the first question onward, the interview was filled with pointed queries about the former president's past comments about race, which Trump countered with defensive answers.
"I wish to personally express my sincerest gratitude to whomever it is on the Trump campaign who convinced Trump it was a good idea to have him appear before the @NABJ," Conway posted to X, formerly Twitter. The conservative attorney has been an outspoken critic of Trump and is the current president of the Anti-Psychopath PAC.
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"Whoever you are, you are a true patriot, and your country is in your debt," Conway quipped.
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The NABJ interview kicked off with a question from Scott, who asked the former president why Black voters should "trust" him in November, given Trump's past comments directed at Black political leaders, including questioning whether former President Barack Obama was eligible to run for office. Trump also raised doubts about former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley's Indian heritage while she ran for the GOP presidential nomination.
"I don't think I've ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, the first question," Trump said in response to Scott. "You don't even say 'Hello. How are you?' Are you with ABC, because I think they're a fake news network, a terrible network."
Later in the interview, Trump was questioned by Scott on claims that Vice President Kamala Harris is a "DEI candidate," an attack that has been used by several conservatives that accuse Harris, a former attorney general and senator, of only being picked as the presumptive Democratic nominee because of her race.
Trump responded, "She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was Black until a couple of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black."
Trump's demeanor throughout the interview was bashed by politicians and journalists. Harris' campaign also released a statement, saying that the "hostility" from Trump on Wednesday "is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president."
The former president defended his performance in a post to Truth Social following the NABJ interview, writing: "The questions were Rude and Nasty, often in the form of a statement, but we CRUSHED IT!"
Trump also defended his statements questioning Harris' racial heritage. In a separate post, he reshared a video from 2019 when Harris was running for the 2020 Democratic nomination, which featured the vice president making masala dosa, a traditional Indian dish, with Indian American comedian Mindy Kaling. In the video, Harris says her family is from South India.
"Crazy Kamala is saying she's Indian, not Black," Trump wrote in the post. "This is a big deal. Stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity!"
Harris is the first woman to serve as vice president and was born to a Jamaican father and Indian mother in Oakland, California. She also attended Howard University, a historically Black university, before getting her law degree from University of California Law San Francisco.
Several conservative heads also rushed to Trump's defense, including Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, who told Fox Business that the NABJ was a "hostile environment" for Trump because "a lot of Black journalists tend to lean Democrat."
"But Donald Trump was there to answer the questions about the things that do matter to Black America, that matter to all of America," Donalds added.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also wrote to X on Wednesday, "Trump goes into hostile territory. The equivalent would be if Kamala went into the NRA [National Rifle Association]. Trump did excellent. 10/10. Trump wins when he plays offense. Play to WIN!"
Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment on the NABJ interview.
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