MSNBC’s Joy Reid launched into a scathing critique of former President Donald Trump’s remarks at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference, calling his appearance a “dumpster fire.”
Trump was invited to sit down with Rachel Scott of ABC News, Harris Faulkner of Fox News, and Kadia Goba, political reporter for Semafor for a Q+A discussion at the convention in Chicago on Wednesday.
But it was far from a constructive conversation.
Trump mostly circumvented offering up direct answers to the moderators’ questions and, instead, opted to insult panel members, make inflammatory and derogatory statements about the racial identity of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, falsely claimed that Harris “didn’t pass her bar exam” to become an attorney, and boasted that he had been the “best president” for Black Americans since Abraham Lincoln — all points Reid sharply rebuked.
“A dumpster fire. That may be the only appropriate way to describe what happened today when the NABJ hosted Donald Trump,” Reid said on Wednesday’s episode of “The ReidOut.”
ABC’s Scott opened the discussion with a question about why Trump believes Black Americans should trust him when he has made vitriolic remarks against congresswomen, journalists, and district attorneys of color in the past.
“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, a first question,” Trump responded. “You don’t even say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ Are you with ABC?” he asked Scott. “Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network.”
The attacks against Vice President Harris came soon after when he was questioned about why many conservatives and Republicans keep characterizing Harris as a “DEI hire” and challenging her qualifications to be in executive office.
“She was always of Indian heritage. She was only promoting Indian heritage. I did not know she was Black until a couple of years ago when she happened to turn Black,” he said. “And now she wants to be known as Black. Is she Indian, or is she Black?”
Reid slammed these comments on Wednesday’s show.
“First off, no, Donald. You are not the best president for Black people since Abraham Lincoln,” Reid started. “Not even close. For instance, you like to claim that you have the lowest black unemployment numbers when, in fact, that happened under President Biden. Second, Vice President Kamala Harris is Black. She’s always identified as Black. Her father — also Black.”
“Kamala Harris absolutely passed the bar exam,” Reid added. “That is how she became the district attorney of San Francisco and the attorney general in the state of California. And a successful prosecutor. Donald, that is how she will own you in the next debate if you’re not too chicken to show up.”
Reid also corrected the falsehood Trump asserted on the panel that the Democratic Party allows “abortion in the ninth month” of pregnancy and “the death of a baby after a baby is born.”
“And finally, while we debunked this one multiple times on this show, we must say, yet again, that, no, Democrats do not support the killing of infants after birth,” Reid stressed. “That is called infanticide. It is very, very illegal. A word you know a lot about, Donald, given your 34-count felony conviction, also illegal, having an elective abortion in the ninth month of a pregnancy. Which — just as an idea — is actually insane.”
Trump’s invitation to the convention was seen as controversial by many journalists who were concerned that the former president would use the panel discussion to broadcast troubling and hyperbolic rhetoric on important issues.
Reid summed up her thoughts on his appearance with a direct message for the NABJ board: “Y’all got played.”
“Donald Trump showed up at the convention for exactly three reasons,” Reid said. “To try to dispel the notion he’s scared to debate a Black woman … to steal the attention that Vice President Kamala Harris has hijacked from him, because she’s just more interesting, and her support is more joyous and rooted in popular American culture … to create clips to play for his very white, very right-wing MAGA fan base of him standing up to the Blacks.”
“Trump got played himself. We all saw his true colors shining through,” wrote one viewer on MSNBC’s YouTube channel. “The NABJ interview showed Trump being his true self. It did more good than you think. The nation is seeing it uncensored, and we are all repulsed.”
However, one of the most popular reactions schooled Reid on one potent point.
“Comparing Trump to a dumpster fire is an insult to dumpster fires.”
