CHICAGO: Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that Kamala Harris misled voters about race during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago on Wednesday, and the interview quickly turned hostile.
The former Republican president has falsely claimed that Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, has in the past only promoted her Indian heritage.
“I didn’t know she was black until she happened to be black a few years ago, and now she wants to be known as black. So, I don’t know if she’s Indian or black,” Trump said in a speech at the group’s annual convention.
Harris was born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both of whom immigrated to the United States. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the most prominent historically black colleges in the United States, where she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically black sorority. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting voting rights and police reform bills for her colleagues.
Trump has widely criticized Harris since she won the Democratic nomination to replace President Joe Biden last week. The former president has repeatedly questioned the backgrounds of racial minority opponents throughout his political career.
“The hostility that Donald Trump displayed on stage today is the same hostility he has displayed throughout his life, during his presidency, and while campaigning to regain power,” Michael Tyler, Harris’s campaign communications director, said in a statement.
“Trump has spent his entire presidency personally attacking and insulting Black journalists. He has failed Black families and left our country in the ditch he left us in,” Tyler said. “Donald Trump has proven that he can’t unite America, so he wants to divide us.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Trump's comments during a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, and initially responded in disbelief, muttering, “Wow.”
Jean-Pierre, who is black, called Trump's comments “disgusting” and “offensive. No one has the right to tell someone who they are or what they think.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked his opponents and critics based on race. He rose to prominence in Republican politics by spreading the false theory that President Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, was not born in the United States. What became known as “birtherism” was only the beginning of Trump’s history of questioning the qualifications and credentials of black politicians.
He has denied allegations of racism. And after Biden chose Harris as his running mate four years ago, a Trump campaign spokesman pointed to Trump’s previous political donations to Harris as evidence that he was not a racist.
“The president, as a private businessman, has donated to candidates across the aisle,” spokeswoman Katrina Pierson told reporters. “And Kamala Harris is a black woman, and he has donated to her campaign. So I hope that right now we can defuse this racism debate,” Pierson said.
During this year's Republican primary, he called former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, a “nimbra.”
When Trump appeared Wednesday at the annual gathering of black journalists, the former president was immediately visceral. He sparred with ABC News interviewer Rachel Scott, accusing her of giving him a “very rude introduction” with tough first questions about his past criticisms of black people and black journalists, his attacks on the black prosecutor who brought his case against him, and his dinner with a white supremacist at a Florida club.
“I think it’s a shame,” Trump said. “I came here with a good heart. I love the black population of this country. I’ve done a lot for the black population of this country.”
Trump continued his attacks on Scott’s network, ABC News, which he has insisted should not host the next presidential debate despite a previous agreement with the Biden campaign. He has also repeatedly described her tone and questions as “obnoxious,” a word he has used in the past to describe women, including Hillary Clinton and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
Republicans also repeated the false claim that immigrants in the U.S. illegally are “stealing black jobs.” When Scott asked what “black jobs” were, Trump responded, “A black job is anyone who has a job,” and the room groaned.
At one point he said, “I’ve been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln.”
The audience responded with a mixture of boos and applause.
Scott asked Trump about his pledge to pardon those involved in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and specifically whether he would pardon those who assaulted police officers.
“Of course,” Trump said. “If they’re innocent, we’ll pardon them.”
Scott pointed out that just because they were convicted doesn't mean they're innocent.
“They were convicted by a very, very strict system,” he said.
“There's nothing perfect in life,” he said at one point while defending supporters who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6.
He compared the 2021 uprising to protests in Minneapolis and other cities following the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and to recent demonstrations at the Capitol last week by protesters opposing the Gaza war. Trump falsely claimed that no one was arrested in those protests and that only his supporters were targeted.
As Trump made the comparison, a man in the back of the room shouted, “Sir, have you no shame?”
The invitation to the former president to speak at the organization sparked a heated debate within NABJ that was leaked online. The organization for journalists of color typically invites presidential candidates to speak at its summer meetings during election years.
Trump has sought to appear outside his traditional base as he campaigns for his third term in office, and his campaign has touted efforts to appeal to black Americans, the Democratic Party's most dedicated voting bloc.
His campaign emphasized his message on the economy and immigration as part of his appeal, but some of his promotional efforts have played on racial stereotypes, such as suggesting that African Americans would sympathize with the criminal charges he faces and promoting the brand's sneakers.
Trump and NABJ also have a tense history over his treatment of black female journalists. In 2018, NABJ accused Trump of repeatedly using words like “stupid,” “loser,” and “obnoxious” to describe black female journalists.
The vice president is not expected to attend the convention, but NABJ said in a statement posted to X that it hopes she will participate in the conversation in September, either in person or online.
President Trump posted on his social media networks that he had been told the event could not be held online.
“She declined, and I’m in Chicago getting ready to go,” Trump wrote. “Now I hear she’s doing an event on ZOOM. What’s going on here?”
Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday afternoon, where he mispronounced Harris' name several times.
Before Trump took the stage, his team showed news headlines from years ago on the stadium's big screens, describing Harris as “the first Indian-American senator.”
