'Is she black or Indian?': Trump questions Harris' racial identity
1 August 2024, 08:29
Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has questioned Vice President Kamala Harris' racial identity.
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Trump said Harris, the first black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had in the past promoted only her 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?" Mr Trump said while addressing the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Chicago.
It's not the first time Trump has made racist remarks about Democrats - in 2016, he repeatedly said he believed then-President Barack Obama was born outside the US.
Trump eventually retracted the claims after the White House in September 2016 released Obama's birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii.
Harris on Wednesday said Trump's false assertions about her race were the "same old show" as she emphasised the need for black women to organise for his defeat this November.
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Addressing the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc - one of "Divine Nine" historically black fraternities and sororities - in Houston, Harris told the crowd: "When I look out at everyone here, I see family."
Ms Harris responded briefly during her address to the sorority, saying Mr Trump's display was "the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect".
She added: "And let me just say, the American people deserve better. The American people deserve better."
"Our differences do not divide us, they are an essential source of our strength," Ms Harris said.
Referencing the combative tone of Mr Trump's interview at the NABJ convention, she said: "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."
Ms Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the US.
As an undergraduate, Ms Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation's most prominent historically black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.
As a US senator, Ms Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Speaking to Sigma Gamma Rho members, Ms Harris said the "nation is counting on you" to register people to vote and ensure they go to the polls.
"When we organise, mountains move," she said.
