Former President Donald Trump called into question Vice President Kamala Harris’s heritage on Wednesday during a live interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.
During the interview in Chicago, Trump was asked what he and other Republicans meant when they referred to Harris as a “DEI hire” after she was all but hand-picked by Joe Biden and other high-ranking Democrats to be at the top of the Democratic ticket. 'DEI' refers to 'diversity, equity and inclusion' efforts in hiring and is sometimes used derisively to describe someone who landed a position through something other than skill and accomplishments.
“I’ve known her a long time indirectly. Not directly very much,” Trump said. “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. And now she wants to be known as Black.”
Trump went on to ask, “is she Indian or is she Black?” resulting in the interviewer, ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott, interjecting.
“She has always identified as a Black woman,” Scott said.
“But you know what, I respect either one. But she obviously doesn’t. Because she was Indian all the way, then all of a sudden, she made a turn. And she became a Black person. And I think somebody should look into that,” Trump said.
The former president was feisty in his response, and in a post after on Truth Social, he said that Scott’s tone was “hostile” and “nasty.”
The vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee is of Indian American and African American descent. Her father emigrated from Jamaica, and her mother emigrated from India. She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., a historically Black university, and was a member of a 'Divine Nine' sorority, which are a group of historically Black sororities.
Supporters, and others, note that throughout her career, she has always trumpeted her racially mixed Indian and Black heritage. Trump’s comments sparked a huge response from Democrats and the White House, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calling Trump’s remark about Harris “insulting” and “repulsive.”
The Harris campaign said that Trump’s appearance at the conference on Wednesday was “a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign.”
“I’ll tell what it is not: It’s not surprising,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said. “This is who Donald Trump is. This is the politics of insult, of revenge and resentment and retribution.”
“It’s also exactly what the American people will see from across the debate stage as Vice President Harris offers a vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement. “All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on September 10.”