Donald Trump is under fire for a “clearly racist” interview where he claimed Kamala Harris “only recently turned black”.
On Wednesday Trump said Ms Harris, whose mother was Indian American and father is black, was “Indian all the way” up until recently.
“All of a sudden she made a turn and she became a black person,” he said during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Chicago.
Leading Democrats hit out at Trump following the comments, with Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, calling his appearance a “meltdown” that showed he was unfit for office.
Mark Kelly, a senator from Arizona and one of the favourites to become Ms Harris’s running mate, said the remarks were “overtly racist”.
Another potential pick for vice-president, JB Pritzker, said Trump’s comments showed the “racism coming through him”.
Ms Harris did not directly address the remarks on Wednesday but said that Trump had put on the “same old show” of “divisiveness and disrespect”.
“The American people deserve better,” Ms Harris said at a convention of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of America’s most prominent black sororities.
“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.”
During the interview, Trump complained that the questions he was facing were “very rude” and “nasty”.
Republicans are said to be reeling at the “embarrassing” remarks.
One House Republican told Axios that the interview was “awful” and raised concerns about Trump’s ability to control his impulses while running against the first female, black and Asian vice president.
Without mentioning Trump by name, former Maryland governor Larry Hogan, a GOP candidate for the US Senate, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it is “unacceptable and abhorrent to attack vice-president Harris or anyone’s racial identity”.
Republican strategist Scott Jennings told CNN that Trump “cr—d the bed” in his appearance at the NABJ convention.
“The only question is whether he’s gonna roll around in it or get up and change the sheets,” he added.
Sen Lisa Murkowski listed a series of recent mishaps by Trump and his running mate JD Vance when talking about Ms Harris recently.
“Childless cat women, DEI candidates, now, ‘Is she black? Is she Indian?” she said.
Doug Emhoff, Ms Harris’s husband, said at a fundraiser in Maine that Trump’s comments showed “a lack of character” but were ultimately a “distraction”.
JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, defended the former president’s remarks at a campaign rally in Arizona, accusing Ms Harris of being a political “chameleon”.
Although he did not directly attack Mr Harris’ racial background, the Ohio senator described her as a “phoney” who “grew up in Canada”.
Ms Harris moved to Canada when she was twelve, in 1976, and stayed there for five years while her mother held a research job at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital.
Mr Vance went on to claim that she had changed her accent when campaigning last week.
“Earlier this week, look up the clip, she went down to Georgia and started talking with a fake Southern accent,” Mr Vance said.
“What the hell is that all about? Kamala Harris grew up in Canada. They don’t talk like that in Vancouver or Quebec or wherever she came from, doesn’t matter.”
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