Civil rights activist and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton said former President Donald Trump “accomplished what he set out to do” by appearing at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference this week.
Sharpton claimed that the GOP presidential nominee wasn’t trying to reach a new audience of black voters with his appearance. Instead, Sharpton asserted, Trump wanted to demonstrate his loyalty to his mainly white base.
On MSNBC, Sharpton said of Trump’s appearance: “He accepted this invitation to use that platform to play to his MAGA crowd. And those bigots who will say tonight, he went in there and stood up to those black journalists, stood up and called the vice president someone that is not proud of who she is.”
Note: Trump implied that his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, has used her racial background selectively for political advantage.
Trump said of Harris: “She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage.”
He added: “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
“Donald #Trump accepted invitation… to play to his mega MAGA crowd” says Al Sharpton @MSNBC. He adds, “he came to say I will go to their own conference & do everything but call them the N-word…he saw @NABJ useful black platform to show he will stand up to Blacks.” #NABJ24 pic.twitter.com/KHzaNAhMut
— Rebecca Aguilar (@RebeccaAguilar) July 31, 2024
Sharpton said Trump fully intended to use the Black journalists as a “backboard to score with the MAGA crowd to say, ‘I’m one of y’all. I will go to their own conference and do everything but call them the n-word.’”
Sharpton added: “Donald Trump saw the NABJ as a useful platform for him to show that he will stand up to blacks and call us whatever he wants to call us and attack our people in their face and they ain’t gonna do anything about it.”
Note: The day after the NABJ conference, both Harris and Sharpton spoke at the memorial service for the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (R-TX).
At the pulpit, Sharpton took a shot at Trump — who is known for using orange-hued makeup — and said: “I promise Sheila, we gonna fight every bigot and every racist, whether they’re white, whether they’re black, or whether they’re orange.”