Trump Says Harris ‘Became Black’ Only Recently, in NABJ Convention Talk

In an appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, Donald Trump also said his choice of Senator JD Vance as vice president will not matter to voters.

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Former President Donald J. Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s ethnicity during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention.

Reporter: “Some of your own supporters, including Republicans on Capitol Hill, have labeled Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the first Black and Asian American woman to serve as vice president and be on a major party ticket, as a D.E.I. hire. Is that acceptable language to you? And will you tell those Republicans and those supporters to stop it?” “How do you define D.E.I.? Go ahead. How do you define —” “Diversity, equity and inclusion.” “OK, yeah, go ahead. Is that what your definition —” That is, that is, literally the word —” “Would you give me a definition then? Would you give me a definition of that? Give me a definition.” “Sir, I’m asking you a question. “No, no, you have to define it. Define the, define it for me if you would.” “I just defined it, sir. Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a Black woman?” “Well, I can say, no. I think it’s maybe a little bit different. So I’ve known her a long time, indirectly, not directly very much. And 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. So I don’t know. Is she Indian or is she Black?” “She has always identified as a Black woman.” “I respect either one. I respect either one. But she obviously doesn’t 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.” “Just to be clear, sir, do you mean that she is —” “Somebody should look into that, too. When you ask, and continue in a very hostile, nasty tone.” “It’s a direct question, sir. Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is a D.E.I. hire as someone —” “I really don’t know. I mean, I really don’t know. Could be. Could be.”

Former President Donald J. Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s ethnicity during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention.Credit

Former President Donald J. Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s identity as a Black woman on Wednesday in front of an audience of Black journalists, suggesting his opponent for the presidency had adopted her racial profile as a way to gain a political advantage.

“She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person,” he said of Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian American, whose father is Black and who has always identified as a Black woman.

Ms. Harris has long embraced both her Black and South Asian identity. She attended Howard University, a historically Black institution, and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s first sorority established for Black college women. Headlines from her earliest political victories dating back to the early 2000s highlighted both identities.

Mr. Trump’s remarks prompted gasps and jeers from the audience at the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago. The former president’s combative appearance there was one of the most unusual of the campaign so far as he sparred with reporters over diversity efforts, repeated falsehoods about a range of subjects and told the group that he was “the best president for the Black population” since Abraham Lincoln.

Ms. Harris responded in careful fashion on Wednesday night, saying in a speech in Houston that he had put on the “same old show” of “divisiveness and disrespect.”

“The American people deserve better,” Ms. Harris said at a convention of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of the nation’s most prominent Black sororities. “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.”

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