Senator JD Vance (Republican, Ohio) is facing some heat online after he said during a news conference on Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris is faking “who she is.”
While speaking to reporters during a campaign stop in Michigan, the Republican vice presidential nominee was asked to weigh in on Donald Trump’s recent remarks about Harris’ Black identity as he campaigns for a return to the White House.
During a contentious appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last month, the former president falsely accused Harris — who is both Black and of South Asian heritage — of not identifying as Black until a few years ago.
Vance, who has three biracial children (his wife’s parents are from India), on Wednesday defended Trump’s attacks on Harris.
“I am the father of biracial children... and look, I was not bothered at all by what President Trump said. I didn’t take it as an attack on Kamala Harris’ biracial background at all,” he told the reporters in a session recorded on C-SPAN. “What I took it as was an attack on Kamala Harris being a chameleon.”
“She pretends to be one thing when she’s in front of one audience. She pretends to be something else when she’s in front of another audience,” he continued.
Vance then argued that Trump’s erroneous accusations surrounding Harris’ identity were “totally inoffensive” and were instead a statement about Harris pretending “to be something different depending on which audience she’s speaking to.”
The Republican senator then pivoted the conversation to Harris’ positions on policy issues, calling her “a fake.”
A reporter pressed Vance further, asking, “She is both Indian and Black. How can she fake her race?”
“She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she’s in front of, and that’s who she is and that’s who she’s always been,” Vance responded.
Some people on X, formerly Twitter, charged that Vance was being hypocritical, considering his past strong criticisms of Trump. He previously described himself as a “Never Trump Guy” and once pondered whether Trump was “America’s Hitler.”
“Does he not see the irony of his statement since he was a Never Trumper?” one person wrote.
“Says the guy who completely switched sides [once] he saw how good the grift was,” wrote another.
Others questioned why Trump and Vance think discussing Harris’ biracial identity would help their campaign.
“This is not a winning campaign message,” one X user wrote.
Trump’s unfounded accusations about Harris’ manipulation of her Black identity sparked a firestorm of controversy, with some GOP politicians trying to distance themselves from his remarks.
Check out more responses to Vance’s recent attacks on Harris below: