Kamala Harris will be interviewed by members of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philly Tuesday
The conversation is scheduled to come roughly seven weeks after former President Trump first publicly questioned and attacked Harris at NABJ's conference in July.
Vice President Kamala Harris will be interviewed live by members of the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday afternoon at WHYY, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate. The conversation, which will be streamed on Facebook and YouTube starting at 2:30 p.m., is scheduled to come roughly seven weeks after former President Donald Trump first publicly questioned and attacked Harris’ racial identity during a combative interview at the group’s conference in July.
The conversation is not a campaign event, but it underscores the important role that Philadelphia continues to play on the national political stage. The conversation will take place a week after Harris and Trump debated at the National Constitution Center — across the street from WHYY.
Harris’ appearance before an organization representing Black journalists also highlights the importance that Black voters will play in determining who wins the presidential race.
Trump’s disastrous NABJ interview in July, just 10 days after Harris entered the election campaign, backfired, with even Republican allies distancing themselves from his false suggestion that she had misled voters about her racial identity.
“She was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went — she became a Black person,” Trump said of Harris, whose mother emigrated from India and whose father emigrated from Jamaica. “I think somebody should look into that.”
Harris has since responded to Trump’s racist remark, most recently on the debate stage Tuesday.
“I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has, consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people,” Harris said.
Harris, who attended historically Black Howard University, would be the first Black woman to serve as president if elected, in addition to being the first Asian American or woman of any race.
The vice president’s NABJ conversation in Philadelphia will be attended by professional and student members of the organization, along with 100 journalism and communications students from local HBCUs.
It coincides with the White House’s national HBCU conference taking place at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown through Thursday.
Tuesday’s event will mark Harris’ 13th scheduled visit to Pennsylvania this year.
The vice president has been giving special attention to Philly in the past several days. Harris sat down for a pretaped interview with 6ABC’s Brian Taff that aired Friday evening at 6, she stopped by a watch party after the debate at the Cherry Street Pier, and her campaign rolled out Philly-specific advertisements — the usual: pretzels, cheesesteaks, Wawa — around the city on the day of the debate.
The spotlight on Philadelphia is not a coincidence. Locked in a dead heat with Trump in the commonwealth, according to recent polling, both candidates will likely need to secure as many votes as possible in its largest city to be victorious in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state that will play a role in determining the outcome of the election.
Tuesday’s event with Harris is not open to the public, but the livestream will be widely available online. PolitiFact will fact-check the conversation in real time through the hashtag #NABJFactCheck and through a live feed on the NABJ website.