Fox News host Harris Faulkner recently revealed behind-the-scenes drama involving a group of Black journalists who, she claims, conspired to derail President Donald Trump’s appearance at a major media gathering last year.
Faulkner had joined ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott and Semafor reporter Kadia Goba in interviewing Trump at the July 31, 2024, National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference. What was expected to be a high-profile campaign event quickly devolved into a tense exchange, as Trump clashed with Faulkner’s fellow panelists after they accused him of past discrimination against Black Americans.
Footage from the event went viral at the time, capturing Trump criticizing Scott for asking “nasty” questions and arriving 30 minutes late, prompting the ABC journalist to drop her neutral tone 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.”
Faulkner revealed that just moments before going on stage, she was handed a completely new script—one that had not been shared during the pre-show briefings, catching her off guard.
“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.
Faulkner pointed to one instance of what she called an “ambush lane” aimed at Trump—when he was unexpectedly pressed about his decision to choose J.D. Vance as his running mate. “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 event quickly spiraled into a heated exchange after Rachel Scott asked Trump whether he was showing racial hostility toward Black journalists and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. She pointed to a past remark in which Trump had referred to a Black reporter as a “loser,” using it as the basis for her question.
“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.”
Whatever the organizers may have intended, their effort to sway Black voters away from Trump ultimately fell flat. Exit polls from the November election revealed that more than one in five Black voters supported Trump—a level of support for a Republican presidential candidate not seen since the Civil Rights era.
