Usually, Donald Trump doesn’t need any help in embarrassing himself, but he sure got it when he made the thoroughly unwise decision to appear at the 2024 National Association of Black Journalists convention.
There’s no world in which it made sense for Donald ‘Birther’ Trump to attend an event like the one that took place between July 31 and Aug. 4, 2024, and yet this man made the brainless decision to do so, and promptly sunk his chances at securing a single vote from anyone in attendance. Or anyone watching. Or anyone with a brain and an ounce of empathy, after the absolute embarrassment of a former president demonstrated such an utter lack of tact even his own supporters were left reeling.
Trump is not a smart man. He’s a loud man, a rich man, and a confident man, for sure, but he’s barely got two brain cells to rub together. That fact could not have been more clear during his appearance at the NABJ, as he fumbled and disparaged his way through a truly painful series of responses that proved, without a doubt, how little this man thinks of the people he’s trying to appeal to.
His utterly abysmal showing at the 2024 NABJ proved just how little sense Trump has left, and drove home precisely how poorly this sorry excuse for a candidate would perform in a debate against Kamala Harris. He did fine against President Biden — whose own terrible performance overshadowed Trump’s typical BS — but Harris is not Biden. She’s young, starkly intelligent, experienced, and well-spoken. Trump, on the other hand, is a belligerent weirdo whose every word is marinated in coded messaging that leans into the bigotry and xenophobia that has become his calling card.
“This is why he dropped out of the debate with Kamala. He can’t handle the truth,” one person on TikTok astutely pointed out in the comments section of a video highlighting Trump’s most offensive moments on stage. Even here, among three respected Black journalists, Trump flaunts his flagrant disrespect of the Black community without shame. And while the journalists do their best to fact-check him in real-time, one can’t help but recall Kamala Harris’ fastidious rebuttal to Mike Pence at the 2020 vice presidential debate when he attempted to interrupt her with misinformed BS: “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking. I’m speaking.”
It is very likely for this reason — and the fact that he’s shaking in his oversized boots — that Trump is toying with refusing to debate Harris altogether. A second presidential debate is currently scheduled for Sept. 10, but if Trump refuses to participate — something that gets more likely with each passing day — he’ll be able to side-step the looming embarrassment.
He indicated that he may back out of the debate when he spoke with Fox News recently, but left things up in the air by providing a typical non-answer. He stated that he will “probably end up debating. … But I can also make a case for not doing it.” He also took shots at the intended venue and moderators, falsely implying that ABC is biased against him.
Harris, for her part, has promised to attend the debate regardless of Trump’s wishy-washy behavior. She’s more than ready to school the former president in a debate, but she won’t have the chance if he backs out. She will, however, still have the chance to school him come November, when all those lies he spews are put to the ultimate test.