Former President Donald Trump accused Vice President Kamala Harris of happening “to turn Black” while he answered questions at a convention for Black journalists in Chicago on Wednesday.
In a Q&A with Rachel Scott, a senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, Trump was asked about recent attacks against Harris by Republicans, who’ve accused her of being a “DEI hire.”
“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 ‘DEI hire,’” Scott said. “Is that acceptable language to you? And will you tell those Republicans and those supporters to stop it?”
In response, Trump asked Scott to define “DEI.”
“Diversity, equity and inclusion,” Scott said, correctly.
In a stunning back-and-forth, Trump continued to ask for the definition, and Scott repeated her question.
“Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a Black woman?” Scott asked.
Trump responded by falsely accusing Harris of hiding her Black identity until it was politically beneficial.
“I’ve known [Harris] a long time indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “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?”
Loud groans and boos could be heard from the audience.
“She has always identified as a Black woman,” Scott corrected Trump.
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t,” he responded. “I think somebody should look into that.”
Harris was born in California and is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to Trump’s comments in a statement, saying, “No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify.”
Trump has previously questioned his political opponents’ racial identities. He was a prominent backer of the “birther” movement that baselessly cast doubt on former President Barack Obama’s US citizenship, and in 2020 he promoted the false claim that Harris also might not be a US citizen. He also attacked former South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley earlier this year, falsely suggesting Haley couldn’t run for president because she wasn’t born in the US Haley was born in South Carolina.
Trump’s decision to attend this year’s NABJ convention, a nonprofit organisation that has worked on behalf of Black media professionals in the US since 1975, was met with backlash among those attending. Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, the event’s co-chair, stepped down from her post on Tuesday.
“To the journalists interviewing Trump, I wish them the best of luck,” she wrote on social media.