Black journalists group condemns Republicans who jeered ABC News reporter

The National Association of Black Journalists is out with an official statement condemning Republican members of Congress who shouted down a Black reporter for asking then-House speaker nominee Mike Johnson about his attempts to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election. 

The conservative conniption was caught on camera last week at a news conference that followed House Republicans’ nomination of Johnson, R-La. He was the fourth GOP nominee in three weeks, and he was ultimately elected speaker the next day.

GOP lawmakers huddling around Johnson booed ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott, who is Black, for asking about Johnson’s antidemocratic actions. Their reaction was as clear an indicator as any that Republicans don’t have a reasonable explanation for their attempts to overturn the 2020 election (I think that’s because such an explanation doesn’t exist). 

Watch a clip here: 

Oh, how wonderful life might be if we could merely shout our problems away. Or “shut [them] up” with a sharp tongue, as Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina shouted at Scott at the news conference. But there’s this thing called memory. And, unfortunately for Republicans, people don’t part with it easily. 

“We are disappointed by those select few members of Congress who took such actions against Rachel,” said NABJ President Ken Lemon. “Reporters should be allowed to do their jobs without harassment and badgering. The freedom of the press must be respected at all levels of government.”

NABJ Vice President-Broadcast Walter Smith Randolph said, “Rachel’s track record speaks for itself,” and added: “We know she will not be intimidated and will continue her strong reporting. 

When I went to the NABJ convention in Birmingham, Alabama, in August, I couldn’t stop thinking about how audacious the gathering was given Birmingham’s legacy of racism and the period we’re living through. At a time when conservatives are trying to ban the teaching of Black history, Black journalists — like Scott — are adding to that historical record in the present with their reporting. And, indeed, that historical record includes the efforts in 2020 (and beyond) to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Those efforts were in large part predicated on false claims that voters in districts with large Black populations committed fraud. 

Republicans evidently don’t like being reminded of this. But they should strap in. Their efforts to overturn the 2020 election will never be erased, thanks to dogged journalists like Rachel Scott.