As a response to former President Donald Trump's aggressive interview with the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris stated, "the American people deserve better."
"It was the same old show − the divisiveness and the disrespect," Harris stated on Wednesday evening in Houston, while addressing members of Sigma Gamma Sorority, which is a historically Black sorority, during the 60th Biennial Boule of the organization.
"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 Party nominee added, as per USA Today.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump questioned the Black racial identity of Harris, who is half Black and half Indian-American. This interview took place in Chicago and was conducted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).
"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. Is she Indian or is she Black? Because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went she became a Black person,” Trump said of Harris.
In addition to having a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Harris received his education at Howard University, which is a historically Black college. The United States of America has never had a vice president who was a woman, and she is also the first Black woman to ever hold the position.
Following the withdrawal of former Vice President Joe Biden from the race on July 21, Trump's comments come at a time when Harris's campaign for president, which is still in its early stages, is gaining steam in the polls. A strong effort has been made by the Trump campaign to define Harris, and it appears that calling into doubt her racial identity is a part of that approach.
"Crazy Kamala is saying she’s Indian, not Black. This is a big deal. Stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity!" Trump penned in a post on Truth Social.
Later on Wednesday night, while Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he accused Harris of adopting a "new southern accent" when she spoke the night before at a campaign event in Atlanta.
The Associated Press published a headline in 2016 that read, "California's Kamala Harris becomes first Indian-American US Senator." The photo of Harris, who was smiling brightly, was displayed on a large screen that was located above Trump's stage before he began his speech at the event.
For the purpose of warming up for Trump at the rally, his attorney Alina Hubba addressed the gathering of people who support Trump and said, "Unlike you, Kamala, I know who my roots are. I know where I come from."
“Kamala Harris is a phony who caters to whatever audience is in front of her,” Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who is running for vice president alongside Donald Trump, stated in a speech that took place on Wednesday in Arizona during the campaign.
This is not the first time that supporters of Trump have made a racial identity assault against Harris. When Harris was running for president in the Democratic primary in 2019, she was subjected to criticisms that were quite similar to those that appeared in 2019.
When the accusations were made, the Harris campaign contrasted them to the birther claims that President Trump had made against President Barack Obama. In those claims, Trump had made the erroneous assertion that Obama was born in Kenya.
"The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president. Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us," Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign communications director, said in a statement Wednesday following Trump's NABJ interview.
Investigative journalist Laura Loomer boldly claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that Harris is not Black. “I have a copy of Kamala Harris’s @KamalaHarris ’s birth certificate. Nowhere on her birth certificate does it say that she is BLACK OR AFRICAN. @KamalaHQ is a liar. Donald Trump is correct. Kamala Harris is NOT black and never has been. She is also the descendent of slave owners. Kamala Harris is the daughter of Donald J Harris, who was born in Jamaica, and Shyamala Gopalan Harris from India,” she wrote.
“Kamala Harris’s four-times-paternal-great-grandfather is a guy named Hamilton Brown. He was born in Co Antrim in 1776, the same year of the US Declaration of Independence. Brown emigrated to Jamaica when it was a British colony, and once he arrived, he became an avid slave owner on the sugar plantations in Jamaica. Hamilton Brown opposed the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and promoted slavery and slave ownership till the day he died,” Laura went on.
Netizens were quick to react to Laura’s post. “Exactly Caucasian mother and Jamaican father. We've pulled her genealogy as well. Kamala is not actually black,” Jessico Bowman commented. “I think she’s done,” JD Sharp said.
“Kamala lies for a living. She’s lied all of her life. She’s now been exposed lying about her birth. What a fraud,” Paul Szypula shared. “Yeah her family owned slaves!! But of course she won’t mention that. So much for black lives right?” another netizen stated.
Business Times has reached out to Kamala Harris and Donald Trump for further comments.
