CHICAGO: Donald Trump falsely suggested that Kamala Harris had misled voters about her race as the former president appeared at the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago on Wednesday, which quickly turned hostile.
The Republican former president falsely claimed that Harris, the first black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had only promoted her Indian heritage in the past.
“I didn't know she was black until years ago when she became black and now she wants to be known as black. So, I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?” Trump said while addressing the group's annual conference.
Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the United States. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation's most prominent historically black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically black fraternity Alpha Kappa Alpha. . . As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting her colleagues' legislation to strengthen voting rights and reform policing.
Trump has been widely critical of Harris since replacing President Joe Biden on the presumptive Democratic ticket last week. During his political career, the former president has repeatedly questioned the background of ethnic minority opponents.
“The hostility that Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility that he has shown throughout his life, throughout his tenure and throughout his campaign for president,” Harris' campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement. seeks to regain power.”
“The way Trump has personally attacked and insulted black journalists throughout his presidency — while he's failed black families and left the entire country out of the hole he's left us in,” Tyler said. “Donald Trump has already proven that he cannot unite America, so he tries to divide us.
White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre was asked about Trump's comments during her briefing with reporters on Wednesday and responded incredulously, initially muttering, “Wow.”
Jean-Pierre, who is black, called what Trump said “disgusting” and said, “It's insulting and no one has the right to tell someone how they know them.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked his opponents and critics along racial lines. He rose to prominence in Republican politics by promoting false theories that the nation's first black president, Barack Obama, was not born in the United States. “Birthism,” as it became known, was just the beginning of Trump's history of questioning the credentials and qualifications of black politicians.
He has denied accusations 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 racist.
“The president, as a private businessman, has donated to candidates across the aisle,” the spokeswoman, Katrina Pearson, told reporters. “And I will note that Kamala Harris is a black woman and she donated to her campaign, so I hope we can now square this racism argument,” Pearson said.
In this year's Republican primaries, he once referred to former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, as “Nimbra.”
Trump's appearance at the annual gathering of black journalists on Wednesday immediately became heated, with the former president sparring with ABC News interviewer Rachel Scott and accusing her of making a “very rude introduction.” And his attacks on black journalists, the black prosecutors who prosecuted him and the dinner he had with a white supremacist at his Florida club.
“I think it's outrageous,” Trump said. “I came here in good spirits. I love the black population of this country. I have done so much for the black population of this country.
Trump continued his attacks on Scott's network, ABC News, which he has argued should not host another presidential debate despite a previous agreement with the Biden campaign. He repeatedly described her tone and questions as “nasty,” a term he has used in the past to describe women including Hillary Clinton and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
The Republican also repeated his false claim that immigrants in the country illegally are “taking black jobs.” When Scott pushed on what a “black job” was, Trump responded, shouting from the room, “A black job is anyone who has a job.”
At one point, he said, “I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln.”
The audience responded with a mixture of boos and some applause.
Scott asked Trump about his promise to pardon people convicted for their roles in the riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and specifically whether to pardon those who attacked police officers.
Trump said, “Oh, I certainly would,” and added, “If they're innocent, I'll pardon them.”
Scott points out that they are convicted and therefore not innocent.
“Well, they were convicted by a very, very strict system,” he said.
At one point, when he was defending his supporters who entered the Capitol on January 6, he said, “Nothing in life is perfect.”
He compared the uprising in 2021 to the protests in Minneapolis and other cities following the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the recent demonstrations at the Capitol last week by protesters protesting the war in Gaza. Trump falsely claimed that no one was arrested at those other demonstrations and that only his supporters were targeted.
As Trump made the comparison, a man in the back of the room yelled, “Sir, have you no shame?”
The former president's invitation to address the organization sparked an intense internal debate among the NABJ that spilled over online. Organizations for journalists of color typically invite presidential candidates to speak at their summer gatherings during election years.
In his third campaign for the White House, Trump has sought to reach outside his traditional strongholds of support and his campaign has tried to win over black Americans, the Democrats' most committed voting bloc.
His campaign has emphasized his messages on the economy and immigration as part of his appeal, but some of his outreach has played on racial stereotypes, including suggesting that African Americans sympathize with the criminal charges he faces and his promotion of branded sneakers.
Trump and NABJ also have a tense history regarding his treatment of black female journalists. In 2018, the NABJ condemned Trump for repeatedly using terms like “stupid,” “loser” and “destroyed” to describe black women journalists.
The vice president is not scheduled to attend the conference, but NABJ said in a statement posted on X that it was in talks with his campaign to have him appear either virtually or in person for the conversation in September.
Trump posted on his social media that he was told he could not do the event virtually.
“She refused, and I'm ready to land in Chicago to get there,” Trump wrote. “Now I'm told she's doing a show on ZOOM. What's going on here?”
Trump held a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Wednesday where he repeatedly mispronounced Harris' name.
Before he took the stage, Trump's team flashed what appeared to be years-old news headlines describing Harris as the “first Indian-American senator” on the arena's big screen.
