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ABC News' Rachel Scott, a 32-year-old former reporter for WTNH News 8 in New Haven, moderated a discussion with Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago on Wednesday, July 31.
She opened the panel by pressing the former Republican president on his party's attacks on Harris as a "DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) hire." Harris is of mixed race — Indian and black.
Trump prevaricated initially, but Scott pressed him. Eventually, he gave the answer that became a flashbulb moment in the presidential race and pushed her into the national spotlight.
She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago until she happened to turn black and now she wants to be known as black.
Scott kept her composure during the tense back and forth, and her performance drew praise and condemnation from both sides of the political aisle. Some even called it a "master class" in political journalism.
"By not permitting Trump to Gish Gallop, (Scott) forced him to answer a question for which he had no reasonable response," Elizabeth Jacobs wrote in a Threads post. "He is not prepared to be held to account, ever. He has no reasonable response, ever. I hope others are studying Ms. Scott’s performance and learning from it. It was a master class.
However, Trump called Scott's phrasing "rude" and her tone "nasty" and leveled accusations of bias toward ABC News. Many of his supporters said it was an ambush.
Several Trump supporters pointed out he was willing to face tough questions, but Harris had not attend the event.
Scott is a Southern California native who attended the prestigious Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California before coming to Connecticut to join WTNH, an ABC affiliate.
She was named to the Forbes "Top 30 Under 30" for media in 2021.
She serves as the senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, according to her bio.
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