Vice President Kamala Harris expressed strong disapproval of former President Donald Trump’s contentious remarks at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Annual Convention, condemning his false assertions about her racial background.
Addressing members of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority in Houston during its 60th Biennial Boule, Harris emphasized, “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us but are an essential source of our strength.”
Trump’s comments, which he made earlier that day in Chicago, questioned Harris’s Black identity. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black,” Trump said. “Is she Indian or Black? Because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she became a Black person.”
Harris, whose father is Jamaican and mother is Indian, attended Howard University, a historically Black college, and is the first female vice president in U.S. history, as well as the first Black woman to hold the office.
Trump’s remarks come as Harris gains polling momentum in her presidential campaign, following President Joe Biden’s decision to step down from the race on July 21. The Trump campaign has aggressively sought to undermine Harris, with questioning her racial identity being a prominent tactic.
Doubling down on his claims, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Crazy Kamala is saying she’s Indian, not Black. This is a big deal. Stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity!” At a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pa., Trump further accused Harris of adopting a “new southern accent” during a recent campaign event in Atlanta.
During Trump’s rally, a large screen displayed a photo of Harris alongside a 2016 Associated Press headline reading, “California’s Kamala Harris becomes first Indian-American US Senator.” Trump’s attorney, Alina Hubba, also took the stage, remarking, “Unlike you, Kamala, I know who my roots are. I know where I come from.”
Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, echoed these sentiments in Arizona, calling Harris “a phony who caters to whatever audience is in front of her.”
This line of attack is reminiscent of the 2019 Democratic primary, where similar questions about Harris’s racial identity were raised, drawing parallels to Trump’s previous “birther” conspiracy against President Barack Obama. Michael Tyler, Harris’s campaign communications director, stated, “The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president.”
“Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us,” Tyler added.
