Donald Trump’s latest attack line on Kamala Harris isn’t so popular with one of Fox News’ biggest pundits.
Jesse Watters said Wednesday that Trump’s explosive—and verifiably untrue—claim that Harris “turned Black” in recent years to benefit herself politically wasn’t something he’d do himself.
“Most of us wouldn’t have gone in there and gone, ‘Who is Kamala Harris?’ Is she Indian?’ Well, she’s Jamaican, too,” Watters said on The Five. “Not something I would have done.”
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Trump has received widespread condemnation for calling Harris’ race into question during a televised, on-stage interview 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. “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. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t,” he added. “She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.”
Harris, 59, is the daughter of a Jamaican-born father and an Indian-born mother. For decades she’s identified as both Black and southeast Asian, reflecting her parents’ homelands.
Trump, 78, is yet to back away from the comment, which evoked anger from prominent Black Americans and Harris’ campaign. Instead, his team appears to be leaning into the questioning of his opponent’s race, with reports from his rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night showing a Business Insider article about Harris’ Indian heritage projected onto a big screen behind the stage.
On Fox, Watters didn’t outright dunk on Trump over his comments, but he conceded it’s likely going to be a talking for Democrats this election cycle.
“I have no idea how this is going to play with the Black community, but I do know they’re going to be talking about Donald Trump and this moment for days and days and days,” he said.
Others on Fox News weren’t so fatalistic about the moment, however. That included Harris Faulkner, a Black journalist in attendance who claimed many in the crowd were just happy Trump actually showed up.
“Much of that audience was enjoying the moment of hearing from a candidate that they might not always agree with,” she said.
A Fox News spokesperson said, “Anyone who watched the full segment can obviously tell that he was joking which was also made clear later in the discussion.”
