As we’re all well aware by now, Donald Trump’s big Q&A event at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) annual convention in Chicago earlier this week ended up being a dumpster fire of epic proportions, as the scandal-plagued and felony-convicted former president and 2024 Republican presidential nominee once again proved to the world that he’s got the maturity level of a toddler, at best.
Now that the fiasco is all said and done, a prominent inside source with NABJ has publicly spoken out to reveal that the ex-president actually refused to even show up and take the stage for his scheduled interview unless the association promised that their reporters would not fact-check him in real-time during the Q&A session.
NABJ President Ken Lemon spoke with Axios on the heels of Trump’s dumpster fire appearance and revealed that the former president’s team threatened to pull Donald’s participation in the conference altogether unless the association made ironclad assurances that they would not proceed with any live, real-time fact-checking of Trump’s claims.
The Q&A event — that featured former president and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump alongside prominent Black journalists, including ABC News’ Rachel Scott and Fox News’ Harris Faulkner — was ultimately stalled for more than an hour.
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At the time, Trump’s people blamed the massive delay on technical and audio issues. However, Lemon said that those issues were minor and “were resolved very quickly.”
In reality, “The bigger problem was his threat not to take the stage,” according to the NABJ president.
Lemon explained that the intense standoff came extremely close to resulting in the leaders of the association being forced to explain to the crowd of 2,000 people why the former president and 2024 nominee suddenly would not be appearing as scheduled.
The event was ultimately able to move forward, but only after the association promised not to fact-check the former president in real-time.
Trump’s appearance at the NABJ conference was already steeped in controversy and this new information only served to increase that, as it sparked a serious debate over whether the disgraced and scandal-plagued ex-president should have ever been invited in the first place, with many members of the NABJ calling the entire situation “embarrassing” while others praised the interviewing journalists for their tough approach to Donald Trump.
You can find the full Axios report here.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
