Democrats continue to make race a major point in the presidential election and former President Donald Trump jumped into the fire at an event Wednesday.
Showing that there is almost nothing he is afraid of, the Republican presidential nominee stepped into the lion’s den with an appearance at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago, Besides the technical difficulties and a delay getting him on the stage, Trump was peppered with hostile questions from the get-go and called out the unfair treatment.
But responding to a question about Vice President Kamala Harris’ heritage quickly made headlines and prompted a response from the vice president herself.
“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 said when asked if thought Harris was a “DEI hire.”
“So, I don’t know, is she Indian or Black?” he added. “I respect either one but she obviously doesn’t.”
Harris, who was invited to the same event but did not attend, shot back at what she saw as an attack.
This afternoon, Donald Trump spoke to the National Association of Black Journalists.
It was the same old show.
Let me just say: The American people deserve better than Donald Trump’s divisiveness and disrespect.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 1, 2024
Social media users were quick to dig up plenty of examples of Harris touting her Indian heritage before she became vice president. One example was in 2019 when the then-senator from California was running to be the Democratic presidential nominee.
Harris made a guest appearance on a cooking video with actress and producer Mindy Kaling as the pair discussed their Indian backgrounds.
“What we are going to cook today is an Indian recipe, because you are Indian?” Kaling notes, prompting an enthusiastic “Yes! Yes!” from Harris.
“And I don’t know that everybody knows that,” Kaling said. “But I find out wherever I go, and I see Indian people at the supermarket, on the street, everyone’s like ‘You know Kamala Harris is Indian right?’ It’s like our thing we’re so excited about.”
“We’re both Indian. But actually, we’re both South Indian,” Kaling went on to say, prompting Harris to announce, “Yes! You look like the entire one-half of my family.”