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Kamala Harris will be speaking at a black sorority event in Houston shortly. She will be taking to the stage hours after Donald Trump’s interview at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention shocked the audience and ended up being cut short, apparently by his team. He claimed that he has been the “best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln”, adding that a “Black job” is “anybody that has a job”.
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Meanwhile here is our full story on Trump’s comments about his running mate, JD Vance, earlier today.
Donald Trump has said that vice presidential picks have “virtually no impact” on elections when asked about JD Vance’s fitness for office, in an apparent attempt to downplay his running mate’s role on the Republican ticket.
Trump made the comments during a combative interview at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Chicago. Asked by the Fox News journalist Harris Faulkner whether Vance would be ready to take over “on day one, if he has to be”, Trump avoided answering directly and instead downplayed the significance of the Vance’s role.
“I’ve always had great respect for him … but I will say this, and I think this is well documented historically, the vice-president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact. I mean, virtually no impact,” Trump said.
Here is video of Harris’s response to Trump’s interview earlier today:
Kamala Harris in Houston addresses Trump's bonkers appearance at the NABJ: "The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say. The American people deserve better ... a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts." pic.twitter.com/uo7sN6NV0Z
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 1, 2024
“I say to the incredible members of Sigma Gamma Ro Sorority inc, there is so much at stake in this moment. The election is in 97 days. And once again, our nation is counting on you,” she says, “Because when we organise, mountains move, when we organise, nations change, and when we vote, we make history.”
“So let us continue to fight with faith, with optimism, and with hope,” she says.
She ends her speech.
“In the states where the majority of black women live, every state except Virginia has an abortion ban,” Harris says.
She promises to sign abortion protections into law – to loud cheers.
“This afternoon Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists’ and it was the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better,” she says.
“A leader who tells the truth. Who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. Who understands our differences do not divide us.”
Harris repeats her campaign messaging on fighting hidden fees, rent increases, and protecting healthcare.
“We are not going back,” she says, repeating a key Harris 2024 catchphrase.
“Our nation needs you,” she says.
Harris takes to the stage in Houston at the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.’s 60th International Biennial Boulé. She’s smiling, she’s laughing, and she says she’s speaking “as a proud member of the divine nine.”
“I believe in the promise of America. And aren’t so many of us empirical evidence of the promise of America,” she says.
“Greater service brings greater progress,” she says. She starts listing the achievements of the sorority which, she says, “helped elect Joe Biden as the president of the United States and me as the first woman Vice President of the United States”.
As we wait for Harris to speak at the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.’s 60th International Biennial Boulé, here is a brief look at how Harris’s candidacy has shone a spotlight on the power of Black US sororities and fraternities.
Harris is herself a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. The country’s nine most prominent Greek letter organisations are called the “Divine Nine”. Altogether, the US’s Black sororities and fraternities have more than two million members in the US.
“Their voter engagement programs reach millions every four years. More, each organization controls a hefty operating budget and their combined revenue would exceed $150 million, according to public records,” the New York Times reported earlier this week.
“Greek letter organizations who have worked in the trenches, some for over 100 years, never received any kind of publicity, any kind of notoriety,” Representative Frederica S. Wilson of Florida, who is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, told the New York Times earlier this week. Once Ms. Harris ran for president, in 2020, she said, that changed. “The A.K.A.s shouted to the highest hills, ‘That’s our soror! That’s our sister!’”