‘It was
the same old show’: Kamala Harris responds to Trump’s attacks on her racial
identity
Vice-president
brushes off remarks by Donald Trump in which he said Harris ‘happened to turn
Black’ a number of years ago
Helen
Sullivan
Thu 1 Aug
2024 06.15 BST
Kamala
Harris has shrugged off Donald Trump’s questioning of her racial identity,
saying that it was “the same old show” and that “America deserves better”, at a
rally in Texas.
On
Wednesday, in an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists
(NABJ), Trump antagonised senior Black journalists and questioned Harris’s
race, saying, “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting
Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when
she happened to turn Black.”
His
interview, which was meant to last an hour, according to Axios, was cut short
after 34 minutes.
In Houston,
Harris appeared unruffled and kept her remarks on Trump’s comments brief.
“This
afternoon,” she said, pausing for boos from the crowd. “Donald Trump spoke at
the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists.”
“And it was
the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say,
the American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who
tells the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when
confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our
differences do not divide us – they are an essential source of our strength.”
The
presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was speaking at the Sigma Gamma
Rho’s 60th International Biennial Boulé, the Black sorority’s gathering of its
entire membership in Houston, Texas. Harris said she was there “as a proud
member of the Divine Nine” – a group of the most historically powerful Black
fraternities and sororities in the US. Harris is an alumnus of the Alpha Kappa
Alpha sorority.
The Harris
campaign said in a statement: “The Donald Trump America saw at NABJ is the one
Black voters have known for years.”
On Wednesday
evening, Trump spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania, his first in the state since
the assassination attempt against him last month.
Trump said
of Harris, “Don’t forget. Four weeks ago she was considered, like, the worst,”
and that she had had a “personality makeover … All of a sudden she’s considered
the new Margaret Thatcher”.
As
supporters waited for Trump at the rally, which started an hour late, giant
screens displayed a 2016 Business Insider headline referring to Harris as the
first “Indian-American US senator”.
On Wednesday
evening in Maine, Harris’s husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff – who was
himself subjected to attacks from Trump this week – said Trump’s remarks in
Chicago reflected “a worse version of an already horrible person”, the
Washington Post reported. “He should never be near the White House again.”
“The
insults, the BS – it’s horrible, it’s terrible, it shows a lack of character,”
Emhoff said.
White House
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was speaking to journalists as Trump made
his remarks on the NABJ panel. Asked about the comments, which a journalist
read out to her, she at first said she would be “super careful”, then changed
her mind. “Wait. No, no, no,” she said.
“As a person
of colour, as a Black woman who is in this position,” she said, referring to
her role, “What he just said, what you just read out to me is repulsive. It’s
insulting.”
Harris was
the only person qualified to say what her identity was, she continued.
“And I think
it’s insulting for anybody – it doesn’t matter if it’s a former leader, a
former president – it is insulting.”
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