Donald Trump said Kamala Harris, who is mixed race, “happened to be black” after previously calling herself Indian. GETTY(2)
At the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago on July 31, Trump falsely claimed Harris had misrepresented her race
Donald Trump questioned Kamala Harris’ race on Wednesday, July 31, saying she “didn’t know she was black until a few years ago when she accidentally turned black.”
Harris, who is now the Democratic presidential nominee after Joe Biden dropped out of the race, is Indian and black. The daughter of immigrant parents, Harris was born to Dr. Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher, who came to the United States from India. Her father, economist Donald Harris, was born in Jamaica.
“I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago when she turned black and now she wants to be known as black,” Trump, 78, said in a speech at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago. "So, I don't know, is he Indian or is he Black?"
%20and%20her%20father%20Donald%20Harris%20(right).%20KAMALA%20HARRIS-FACEBOOK.webp "Kamala Harris pictured with her late mother Shyamala Gopalan (left) and her father Donald Harris (right).")
Kamala Harris pictured with her late mother Shyamala Gopalan (left) and her father Donald Harris (right). KAMALA HARRIS/FACEBOOK
Harris made history in 2020 as the first female vice president and also the first Black person and the first person of Asian descent to hold the office.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to Trump's remarks at a news conference shortly afterward, telling reporters, "That's insulting and no one has the right to tell someone who they are, how they identify themselves," according to the Associated Press.
%20and%20father%20Donald%20Harris%20(right)..webp "Donald Trump pumps his fist at the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024.")
Donald Trump pumps his fist at the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024. BILL CLARK/CQ ROLL CALL VIA AP IMAGES
Trump has frequently discussed race on the campaign trail, and has famously floated a conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.
Obama, who was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father, answered questions about his background by providing a verified abbreviated birth certificate in 2008, and a verified longer one in 2011.
But Trump later questioned the authenticity of the documents, in what critics saw as an ongoing racist pursuit.
In his new memoir, Fred C. Trump III — the son of Trump’s late brother Fred Trump Jr. — claims that Trump has used the N-word in casual conversation. Bill Pruitt, an unscripted television producer who worked on the first two seasons of Trump’s NBC reality show, separately told Slate that the former president used the N-word to describe one of his first finalists on The Apprentice, Kwame Jackson.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called both allegations false.
The AP reported that Trump’s appearance at the NABJ convention Wednesday was at times controversial.
He accused ABC News' Rachel Scott of giving him a "very rough introduction" with tough first questions about his past criticism of black people and black journalists, his attacks on the black prosecutor who has brought cases against him, and a dinner he had at his Florida club with a white supremacist./people.com
