CHICAGO (AP) — Donald Trump appeared before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago on Wednesday, where he falsely suggested that Kamala Harris had misled voters about her race.
The former Republican president wrongly claimed that Harris, the first Black woman and first Asian American to serve as vice president, had in the past merely promoted her Indian roots.
“I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago, when she accidentally turned black, and now she wants to be known as black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black?” Trump said during his speech at the group’s annual convention.
Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both of whom immigrated to the United States. She attended Howard University, one of the country’s most prominent historically black universities, where she also joined the historically black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and supported her colleagues’ legislation to strengthen voting rights and reform the police.
Trump has leveled a wide range of criticisms at Harris since she replaced President Joe Biden as the likely Democratic presidential front-runner last week. Throughout his political career, the former president has repeatedly questioned the backgrounds of minority opponents.
Michael Tyler, Harris’ campaign communications director, said in a statement that “the hostility Donald Trump displayed on stage today is the same hostility he has displayed throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power.”
“Trump launched personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his entire presidency, while failing Black families and leaving the entire country digging its way out of the hole he left us in,” Tyler said. “Donald Trump has already proven he can’t unite America, so he’s trying to divide us.”
During her Wednesday press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Trump’s remarks and responded with disbelief, initially muttering, “Wow.”
Jean-Pierre, who is black, called Trump’s remarks “repulsive”: “It’s insulting and no one has the right to tell someone how they identify.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked his opponents and critics on the basis of race. He rose to prominence in Republican politics by spreading false theories that President Barack Obama, the country’s first black president, was not born in the United States. Those false theories were just the beginning of Trump’s questioning of the credentials and qualifications of black politicians.
Trump’s appearance Wednesday at the annual gathering of Black journalists quickly turned hostile, with the former president accusing interviewer Rachel Scott of ABC News of giving him a “very rude introduction” with a harsh first question about his past criticism of Black people and Black journalists, his attack on Black prosecutors who have brought cases against him and the dinner he had at his Florida club with a white supremacist.
“I think it’s shameful,” Trump said. “I came here with good intentions. I love the black people in this country. I’ve done a lot for the black people in this country.”
Trump continued his attacks on ABC News, which he has said should not host the upcoming presidential debate despite its previous agreement with the Biden campaign. He also repeatedly called Scott’s questions “disgusting,” a word he has used in the past to describe women including Hillary Clinton and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
The Republican candidate also repeated his false claim that immigrants in the country illegally are “taking black jobs.” When Scott asked him what constituted a “black job,” Trump responded by saying that “a black job is anybody who has a job,” prompting groans from the room.
At one point, he said, “I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln.”
The audience responded with a mix of boos and some applause.
___
Price reported from New York. Associated Press writers Aaron Morrison in New York, Gary Fields in Chicago and Will Weissert and Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.
Brown is a reporter covering national politics, race and democracy issues.
Price is a national political reporter for The Associated Press. She is based in New York.
twittermilk
