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Donald Trump falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris had “gone black.”
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Trump made the claim during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference.
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The former president was also asked about his history of racist remarks.
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday slammed Vice President Kamala Harris, falsely claiming that the first black female vice president had recently “gone black.”
“I’ve known her for a long time, not directly, not indirectly, and she was always of Indian descent,” Trump said during a panel interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. “And she was just promoting Indian descent. I didn’t know she was black until a couple of years ago, when she happened to become black. And now she wants to be known as black.”
According to some reporters in the room, there were audible gasps as Trump made his statement. Early in the interview, ABC News reporter Rachel Scott asked the former president about his long history of dismissing black people, including pushing the racist theory that President Barack Obama was not an American citizen.
Scott asked Trump if he viewed Harris as a “DEI mercenary,” an attack some Republicans have used against the vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Harris is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. In 2019, she told The Washington Post that she hadn’t thought much about her racial identity before entering politics, saying she simply identified as “an American.”
Harris has also made it clear for years that she identifies as African-American.
“My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,” Harris wrote in her autobiography, “The Truths We Hold.” “She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to see us grow up to be confident, proud black women.”
When asked about Trump’s comments, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre reacted with shock.
“What you just read to me is disgusting,” Jean-Pierre said when Trump’s statement was read to her. “It’s insulting. No one has the right to tell someone who they are, how they identify.”
Harris’ campaign responded by criticizing “the hostility” Trump showed during the interview.
“The hostility that Donald Trump displayed on stage today is the same hostility he has displayed his entire life, his entire term in office, and his entire campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and unleash his damaging Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Michael Tyler, communications director for Harris’ campaign, said in a statement.
Trump has repeatedly denounced Project 2025, even though many of his former administration officials were involved in crafting the conservative agenda.
Read the original article on Business Insider
