Fox News host Harris Faulkner recently spilled on entertainment industry gossip among a collection of black journalists who conspired to tank President Donald Trump’s appearance at an association meeting last year.
Faulkner interviewed Trump alongside ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott and Semafor reporter Kadia Gob at the July 31, 2024 conference of the National Association of Black Journalists. The iconic campaign event turned into an unscripted squabble between Trump and Faulkner’s colleagues when they accused him of discriminating against black Americans in his professional life.
Viral video from the time showed Trump accusing Scott of asking “nasty” questions and arriving 30 minutes late, prompting the ABC reporter to drop the unbiased act and fire back.
Before the breakdown, Scott and other participants were already preparing to trip up Trump, Faulkner told the Daily Caller recently.
“What I saw backstage were executives from…and former executives, from some of the networks and they were working on what they were going to do with Trump, and it did not look positive. And I got to see that firsthand,” Faulkner recalled.
“If those people wanted to keep it under wraps, they couldn’t, and they were shouting. And I remember Rachel Scott was part of that whole, you know, melee of people around, I don’t know, it felt like the inner workings of going after Trump.”
Shortly before taking the stage, Faulkner said she was handed an entirely new script that had not been made available during pre-show briefs.
“I thought, ‘Okay, you know what? I’m probably wrong.’ We get on that stage. I wasn’t wrong. What I saw was real, and suddenly a script that, you know, appeared in a prompter in front of the stage that I did not remember anybody talking about,” she said.
One example of an “ambush lane” attempted against Trump came when he was asked about selecting J.D. Vance as his running mate, Faulkner explained.
“That’s why you saw me ask that question at the NABJ, as I kind of rerouted that conversation that was so unfair and said, ‘Can we just get back to journalism here? Can we get out of the ambush lane with Trump?’” Faulkner said.
The plan quickly devolved into a testy feud after Scott asked Trump if he was exhibiting racial hostility toward African-American journalists and black Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, citing a remark he made about a black reporter calling the individual a “loser.”
“First of all I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump responded.
“You don’t even say, ‘Hello, how are you?’” he continued, calling ABC News a “fake news network.”
“I came here in good spirit. I love the black population of this country,” he said. “I think it’s a very rude introduction. I don’t know exactly why you would do something like that.”
Scott opened herself up for criticism by arriving 30 minutes late, allowing Trump to turn the tables on her.
“I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln,” he alleged, calling her questions “hostile” and a “disgrace.”
Whatever their intended plan, the NABJ organizers failed in their attempt to convince black voters not to side with Trump. Exit polls from November show that more than 1 in five black voters went for Trump, a level not seen for a Republican presidential candidate since the Civil Rights era.
