Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Wednesday that his 2024 Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, “happened to turn Black” a few years ago, saying that “all of a sudden, she made a turn” in her identity.
Trump’s comments at a gathering of Black journalists in Chicago came when an interviewer asked him whether he agreed with Republicans on Capitol Hill who have characterized Harris as a “DEI hire.” Trump responded by questioning Harris’ heritage.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting 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?” the former president said.
“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 went – she became a Black person,” he said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. “I think somebody should look into that too.”
Later Wednesday, speaking in Houston at a gathering of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, Harris described the former president’s comments as “the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect.”
“Let me just say, the American people deserve better,” she said.
Trump’s comments are reminiscent of his similar attacks on Black political rivals in the past, including the years he spent pushing the false, racist “birther” conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Harris’ mother was Indian and her father is Jamaican; both immigrated to the United States. Harris was born in Oakland, California, and attended a historically Black university, Howard University, in Washington. She is the first female, first Black and first Asian American vice president.
Trump on Wednesday was interviewed by a panel that included ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Fox News’ Harris Faulkner.
Scott began the interview by asking Trump: “You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals, from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four congresswomen of color, who were American citizens, to go back to where they came from. You have used words like ‘animal’ and ‘rabid’ to describe Black district attorneys. You have attacked Black journalists, calling them a ‘loser,’ saying the questions they ask are, quote, ‘stupid’ and ‘racist.’ You’ve had dinner with a White supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort. So my question, sir – now that you are asking Black supporters to vote for you, why should Black voters trust you after you have used language like that?”
A combative Trump responded: “Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question so – in such a horrible manner, first question. You don’t even say, ‘Hello. How are you?’”
Trump goes after Black journalists conference moderator
He asked Scott if she was with ABC, saying the network was “a fake news network” and “a terrible network.”
“I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country. I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country, including employment, including opportunity zones with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina,” the former president said. “I’ve done so much, and, you know, I say this: Historically Black colleges and universities were out of money, they were stone cold broke, and I saved them. I gave them long-term financing, and nobody else was doing it.”
“It’s a very rude introduction. I don’t know exactly why you would do something like that,” Trump said.
Scott asked if Trump found it acceptable that some Republicans on Capitol Hill have referred to Harris as a “DEI hire” – using the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I really don’t know. Could be. Could be,” he said.
Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, said Wednesday that Trump’s remarks in Chicago reflected “a worse version of an already horrible person.”
“The insults, the B.S. – it’s horrible, it’s terrible, it shows a lack of character – but it’s a distraction,” Emhoff said at a campaign fundraiser in Maine, according to The Washington Post. “It’s about what’s at stake in this election.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a fiery rejoinder to Trump following his remarks at the convention, calling them “repulsive” and “insulting.”
“As a person of color – as a Black woman, who is in this position that is standing before you at this podium, behind this lectern – what he just said, what you just read out to me, is repulsive. It’s insulting, and, you know, no one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify,” Jean-Pierre told reporters during a news briefing Wednesday. “That is no one’s right. It is someone’s own decision.”
Harris’ campaign did not specifically respond to Trump’s comment about her racial identity but said the former president “lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency.”
“Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us,” Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement.
In Chicago on Wednesday, Trump also repeatedly criticized the NABJ for the event’s set-up, which he said made it difficult to hear other panelists and delayed the start of the event. A spokesperson for NABJ told CNN that technology issues had delayed the start of the panel discussion.
Trump in his remarks called himself “the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln,” a comment that drew audible groans from the journalists in attendance. He ignored a follow-up question about whether he was better than Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
“I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “For you to start off a question-and-answer period, especially when you’re 35 minutes late because you couldn’t get your equipment to work, I think it’s a disgrace. I really do, I think it’s a disgrace.”
Daniel Dale fact-checks Trump’s claims on Harris’ race
Asked by Scott Wednesday if he would pardon January 6 rioters who violently attacked police officers at the US Capitol in 2021, Trump said, “Absolutely, I would.”
“If they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” he said.
Scott responded that they had been convicted.
“Well, they were convicted by a very tough system,” Trump said.
The former president criticized Capitol police officers for shooting and killing rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was attempting to crawl through a broken window leading to the Speaker’s Lobby outside the US House chamber. And he complained that “nothing happened” to those who caused property damage during Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020.
“Nothing happens to those people, but you went after the J6 people with a vengeance,” Trump said.
Trump did not answer directly when asked by Fox News’ Faulkner whether his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, would be “ready on Day One to be president.
“Historically, the vice president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact – I mean, virtually no impact,” Trump said.
“You have two or three days where there’s a lot of commotion,” he said, pointing to Harris’ consideration of a running mate, “and then that dies down, and it’s all about the presidential pick. Virtually never has it mattered.”
“You can have a vice president who’s outstanding in every way, and I think JD is … but you’re not voting that way. You’re voting for the president,” Trump said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CORRECTION: This story and headline have been updated to correctly reflect Trump’s exact wording of one quote at the NABJ convention in Chicago.
CNN’s Donald Judd and Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.