Ken Lemon, the president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), said Wednesday’s interview with former President Trump was delayed over a fact-checking dispute, not because of audio issues, as the GOP presidential nominee claimed.
Lemon told Axios he was called back to address an issue just moments before Trump took to the stage. The former president did not want to be fact-checked live and was refusing to begin the interview, he said.
“[Trump’s team] said, ‘Well, can you not fact-check? He’s not going to take the stage if you fact-check,’” Lemon said.
The NABJ’s decision to interview Trump came under criticism, including from some of its members. The question-and-answer was at times tense, as ABC’s Rachel Scott pressed the former president over his past comments about Black voters.
The interview was delayed more than an hour before Trump took the stage with Scott, Fox News’s Harris Faulkner and Semafor’s Kadia Goba.
Trump said the delay was due to audio issues. Lemon told Axios there were audio technical difficulties, but “they were resolved very quickly.”
“The bigger problem was his threat not to take the stage when he had agreed to go on,” Lemon said. “He did not want to be fact-checked, but we could not let him on the stage without fact-checking."
Lemon said the dispute took so long that he was ready to craft a statement telling people why Trump was delayed.
He said “we couldn’t compromise” on the issue, but as he began preparing the statement, Trump walked on stage.
Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told Axios they were waiting “for close to 40 minutes” for the NABJ to fix the audio issue.
Lemon said Trump’s team asked them not to post the fact-checking to its social media pages or allow the reporters to disclose there would be fact-checking, both of which the NABJ did.
In a statement to The Hill, Danielle Alvarez, a senior advisor for Trump, said the NABJ should have told the truth about the audio issues, "which caused a delay in the program."
"When President Trump took the stage, he was met with hostility and a lack of professionalism by an unhinged member of the media," Alvarez said. "President Trump will continue to bypass the bias media and take his winning record and message of prosperity directly to Black communities like he will this weekend in Atlanta."
During the talk, the former president raised eyebrows when talking about his new challenger, Vice President Harris.
Trump said he didn’t know that Harris was Black “until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black.” He said she always thought she was of “Indian heritage.”
Harris is both Black and of Indian descent.
The Hill has reached out to the NABJ for further comment.
— Updated at 3:41 p.m.
