Comparing and contrasting NABJ’s conversations with Trump and Harris

What questions do you have about the 2024 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.

Stating the obvious: There were many differences between the NABJ panel discussions with the two major party presidential candidates.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, was interviewed over the summer during the 2024 NABJ convention in Chicago before an audience of about 1,000 people.

Tuesday’s event at WHYY’s studios on Independence Mall with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, was before a much smaller audience in Studio 1; about 100 with an overflow room.

But there was at least one similarity between them: The tone of each conversation was set with the first question. Coincidentally, they both involved ABC News.

During Trump’s appearance, ABC Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott asked the former president about his past comments regarding Black people. Trump called it a “nasty question” and kept up his attacks during the conversation.

Eugene Daniels, Playbook co-author and White House correspondent for Politico, asked a question on the economy that was similar to a question from “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir during last week’s presidential debate that took place across the street from WHYY.

“Are [voters] better off now than they were four years ago?”

The vice president addressed the topic more directly this time by discussing what the country was going through when she and President Joe Biden began their terms; the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a sudden drop in the economy the year prior. She also acknowledged that the country is still reeling from record inflation.

For those wondering what news was made during each conversion, Trump questioned whether Harris acknowledged that she was Black. Harris has long acknowledged that she is Black.

Harris said she reached out to Trump after a second assassination attempt on Trump’s golf course in Florida. Trump acknowledged the phone call during a Michigan town hall, describing it as “very nice.”

Two of the three moderators in Chicago asked more accountability questions of Trump. The Philadelphia panel — which featured Daniels along with TheGrio’s White House correspondent Gerren Keith Gaynor and WHYY’s Tonya Mosley — equally kept Harris on point with the questions they asked.

A pointed moment was when Mosely redirected the vice president on her question about how Harris would address the issue of handguns, which were involved in 59% of homicides across the country, according to the latest FBI data.

Neither candidate was given a pass between the moderators and the live fact-checking that took place.