Kamala Harris supporters derided Donald Trump’s attacks on her racial identity Wednesday as “repulsive” and “vile” after Trump said his Democratic opponent only recently “became a Black person.”
“Wow,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters when she heard about Trump’s latest remark. “What you just read out to me is repulsive. It’s insulting. No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify.”
Harris for President Communications Director Michael Tyler said in a statement, “Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency – while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in."
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Their comments came in response to a statement Trump made at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said when ABC News’ Rachel Scott asked if he thought it was acceptable for Republicans to refer to Harris as a “DEI hire.”
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black,” he continued. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black? I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went—she became a Black person. I think somebody should look into that too.”
The Harris campaign refrained from labeling Trump’s comments as racist, saying instead, “Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign.” Tyler also re-upped Harris’ call for a debate.
“All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on September 10,” he added.
The comments about Harris, who is biracial, were met with immediate outrage from members of the KHive.
“This man is unfit to be President,” Parkland survivor and gun control activist David Hogg wrote on X. “What a vile and racist comment to say Vice President Harris ‘all of a sudden made a turn’ and became a ‘Black person.’”
“Oh my God,” wrote Pod Save America host Jon Favreau. “I cannot believe this Trump interview with Black journalists is real. This may be one of the worst interviews he’s ever done, and that's saying something.”
Allies in Congress were appalled, too.
“Donald Trump using the largest convening of Black journalists to publicly question Vice President Harris’ identity as a Black woman and insult her intelligence is extremely offensive to Black voters across our country,” Congressional Black Caucus PAC chair Gregory Meeks said in a statement.
Ahead of Trump’s scheduled NABJ appearance, her team did predict that the GOP nominee would lie about his record on just about everything relating to the Black community.
“Black voters see Donald Trump’s lies and empty pandering for what they are—and they will hold him accountable at the polls this November,” the campaign wrote in a release.
