Mindy Kaling apologized for “outing” Kamala Harris as an Indian-American woman at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday—poking fun at the video former President Donald Trump posted while trying to argue she was being disingenuous about her background.
“I am an incredibly famous Gen Z actress who you might recognize from The Office, The Mindy Project, or as the woman who courageously outed Kamala Harris as Indian in an Instagram cooking video,” Kaling (who at 45 is solidly Gen X) said while addressing the crowd in Chicago.
Trump shared a clip from the cooking video in a post on Truth Social in July, claiming that “Crazy Kamala is saying she’s Indian, not Black.” Harris is the daughter of the late Shyamala Gopalan, a scientist who immigrated from India, and Donald Harris, a former Stanford professor born in Jamaica.
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The clip was shared after Trump’s controversial interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago, where he claimed Harris “happened to turn Black.”
But Kaling made light of the video unearthed by Trump, speaking about the experience of meeting the future vice president.
“She wasn’t ‘Madam Vice President’ then, she was my senator,” Kaling said. “And we were filming a video where she came to my home to cook dosas, a South Indian dish.”
Kaling said she “immediately hit it off” with Harris, despite being nervous before the video shoot. The Office star said she bonded with Harris over their mothers’ shared backgrounds—Kaling’s mother was an OB-GYN, while Harris’ mother was a biomedical researcher at UC Berkeley studying breast cancer.
However, Kaling said her biggest takeaway from the now-infamous video was Harris’ cooking ability.
“Guys, she was so much better than me,” Kaling joked. “As she gently corrected my sloppy dosa making, she was complimenting me every step of the way—making sure that my daughter Kit knew how good of a cook I am.”
“When she finally bit into my dosa, she looked at me and said, ‘Mmm, really good!’ And then never took another bite again,” Kaling said.
For more, listen to The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper on The Last Laugh podcast.
