Q&A delayed over an hour because Trump 'did not want to be fact-checked': NABJ president

02 August 2024

When presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump participated in a Q&A panel discussion at the National Association of Black Journalists' (NAJB) annual convention in Chicago on Wednesday, July 31, he received a live fact-check.

But according to Axios, that fact-check is something that Trump initially resisted.

NABJ President Ken Lemon told Axios, "(Trump's team) said, 'Well, can you not fact check? He's not going to take the stage if you fact-check.'"

Axios reporters Delano Massey, Sophia Cai and Russell Contreras note that the discussion was delayed for more than an hour — a delay that Trump initially blamed on audio problems.

Lemon, however, told Axios, "There were audio problems, but they were resolved very quickly. The bigger problem was his threat not to take the stage when he had agreed to go on. He did not want to be fact-checked, but we could not let him on the stage without fact-checking…. I was prepared to go on stage to craft a statement, saying he decided not to go on stage because of fact-checking.... We couldn't compromise on that."

Trump did, however, go on stage and talked to a panel of Black journalists that included ABC News' Rachel Scott (the moderator), Semafor's Kadia Goba and Fox News' Harris Faulkner.

Lemon told Axios, "Our whole team stood our ground."

Read Axios' full report at this link.

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