Republicans scrambled as they tried to defend former president Donald Trump’s racist lies about Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president.
Trump, at an appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists last week, launched a racist attack against Harris by falsely accusing her of misrepresenting her racial background. “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… So I don’t know. Is she Indian or is she Black? I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t. Because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she became a Black person.”
Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance, who has three mixed-race children, applauded and doubled down on the attack: “I thought it was hysterical. I think he pointed out the fundamental chameleon-like nature of Kamala Harris,” Vance said Wednesday.
GOP Rep. Byron Donalds, who himself is the father of mixed-race children, called Trump’s comments a “phony controversy,” saying on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, “I don’t really care, most people don’t.” But Donalds then went on to repeat Trump’s slur against Harris’ racial identity and lie about an Associated Press (AP) story from when Harris was first elected to the Senate.
“When Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was AP that said she was the first Indian American United States senator,” Donalds said. “It was actually played up a lot when she came into the Senate. Now she’s running nationally, obviously the campaign has shifted. They’re talking much more about her father’s heritage and her Black identity. It doesn’t really matter. The [former] president barely mentioned it.”
What the AP actually wrote is this: “Harris will enter the chamber as the first Indian woman elected to a Senate seat and the second Black woman, following Carol Moseley Braun, who served a single term after being elected in 1992.” (Emphasis added.)
Donalds went on to obfuscate and blame Harris for “massive inflation” and “her failure as border czar” even though Republican claims that Harris was Biden’s “border czar” have been labeled misleading by fact checkers.
But George Stephanopoulos did not let Donalds get away with lying about Harris’ racial background. “You just repeated the slur again. If it doesn’t matter, why do you all keep questioning her identity? She’s always identified as a Black woman. She is biracial. She has a Jamaican father and an Indian mother. She’s always identified as both. Why are you questioning that?”
“This is something that’s actually a conversation throughout social media right now,” Donalds dodged. “A lot of people are trying to figure this out.”
“Sir, one second, you just did it again! Why do you insist on questioning her racial identity?” Stephanopoulos asked indignantly.
This racist talking point was debunked long ago. In 2020, the AP ran a fact check that ruled these claims are false. “Kamala Harris for years has identified herself as both Black and Indian American,” the AP’s Amanda Seitz wrote. “In interviews, she has regularly talked about how her mother, who was from India, raised her as Black.”
“George, now that you’re done yelling at me, let me answer,” Donalds testily fired back at Stephanopoulos. The MAGA congressman again pivoted away from the question to say that Trump spent time attacking Harris’ record at his Saturday rally (during which the former president also perpetuated lies about election fraud and cheered the appointment of MAGA loyalists to the Georgia State Election Board.)
“I know you guys like to glom onto this that he talks about in jest or in a serious manner for about a minute or so, but what you do not cover is the litany of failures of Kamala Harris,” Donalds said.
“So questioning someone’s racial identity for two minutes is OK?” Stephanopoulos responded.
Donalds again falsely claimed the AP “brought… up” the claims that Harris is the first Indian senator to be elected in the Senate, repeatedly neglecting that they also in the very same sentence called her the “second Black woman” elected to a Senate seat. “None of this matters to the American people,” Donalds added.
“If it doesn’t matter,” Stephanopolous replied, “I don’t understand why you keep on repeating it, why the [former] president keeps on repeating it, why those introducing the [former] president yesterday keep on repeating it.”
“George, actually, I’m not the one who keeps repeating it. George, you’re the one that’s bringing it up now,” Donalds replied.
“Sir, you’ve done it three times. Every single answer you gave me — now let me finish, sir — every single answer you gave, you repeated the slur,” Stephanopoulos said.
Donalds then tried to get Stephanopoulos to change the subject, but the anchor continued: “AP did not say that Kamala Harris is not Black. She is biracial. She is Indian. She is Black. You continue to repeat the… slur. I don’t understand why you and the [former] president do it, but it’s clear you’re not gonna say that it’s wrong, and you’ve now established that for our audience.”
“Let’s move on,” Donalds pleaded after five minutes of back-and-forth.
Over on on CBS’s Face the Nation, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton got off comparatively easy when he was asked about these attacks on Harris by Ed O’Keefe.
“Are you personally OK with him questioning whether she’s Black?” O’Keefe asked Cotton.
“Ed, he wasn’t saying what matters is how she identifies as her race,” Cotton said. “He explicitly said he didn’t care. One was fine. The other was fine. Both was fine. She identifies as a dangerous San Francisco liberal. That’s the danger to the American people.”
“Let’s move on to other things,” O’Keefe said, allowing Cotton to get away with his lie.
But Republicans should have to face up to the harmful, vile racist falsehoods being spewed by their party’s candidate, especially because they are part of the Trump campaign’s broader strategy. Sources told Rolling Stone that Trump and his aides have planned these race-baiting attacks, despite House Republican leadership begging its members to avoid the topic of Harris’ race, according to Politico.
“It’s not by accident; it’s intentional,” a person close to Trump told Rolling Stone of the attacks. “We’re behind the [former] president, 100 percent.”
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