Trump falsely questions Harris's race at NABJ convention; Harris replies Americans ‘deserve better'

Former President Donald Trump questioned his rival’s race on Wednesday, saying Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black” after years of “only promoting Indian heritage.”

Trump’s claim that Harris had only promoted her South Asian heritage in the past is false. Harris, who is biracial, attended the historically Black Howard University and pledged at a historically Black sorority. As a senator, she was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Speaking Wednesday night in Houston, Harris responded to Trump's comments by telling the crowd "the American people deserve better."

The Republican presidential nominee made the comments during a sit-down interview in Chicago with three prominent Black journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) annual convention.

The more than 30-minute interview began with Rachel Scott of ABC News addressing the “elephant in the room.” Trump’s appearance had divided the conference, and a co-chair had quit after it was announced.

Scott challenged Trump with a litany of his past statements. "A lot of people did not think it was appropriate for you to be here today,” she said.

"You have used words like 'animal' and 'rabid' to describe Black district attorneys,” she continued. “You have attacked Black journalists, calling them 'a loser,' saying that the questions that they asked 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?"

Trump replied: “I don't think I've ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner.”

He went on to call Scott’s question “nasty” and “rude” while touting that he had been “the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln."

Here are the key moments of the NABJ interview.

Trump questions Harris’s race

A number of Trump’s prominent supporters have attacked Harris’s candidacy as a “DEI hire” — suggesting that she is only the presumptive Democratic nominee because she is a biracial woman. Scott asked Trump on Wednesday if that is "acceptable language" to him.

After a back and forth on defining “DEI” — the acronym for diversity, equity, and inclusion — Trump responded by directly questioning his rival’s racial identity.

"I've known her a long time, indirectly,” he said. “And 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?"

As Scott interjected to remind Trump that Harris attended a historically Black college, he doubled down.

“She was Indian all the way,” he said. “And then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person. And I think someone should look into that too."

Harris’s identity as a Black woman has long been in the spotlight as the child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father. She has referred to herself as a “daughter of the civil rights movement” having a stroller view of marches against racial injustice she attended with her parents.

“I was born Black. I will die Black,” she said in 2019.

Police immunity

Trump also appeared to hedge on his campaign vow to give police "immunity from prosecution."

Kadia Goba of Semafor pressed Trump on that claim in the aftermath of the recent police killing of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Black woman who had called 911 for help. Former sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson is charged with first-degree murder in the case.

Trump responded by saying the case “didn't look good” to him. He suggested that instead of blanket immunity, police misconduct cases should be looked at whether the officer is being “unfairly prosecuted.”

‘Black jobs’

Trump repeated a claim he made during his June debate with President Joe Biden by saying immigrants are coming to America and taking "Black jobs," which got a notable reaction from the crowd.

When pushed to provide clarity on what a “Black job” was, Trump did not elaborate beyond defining it as “anybody that has a job.”

‘Historically, the choice of a vice president makes no difference’

Scott asked Trump about controversial comments made by his vice presidential pick, Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who several years ago swiped at Democratic “childless cat ladies." Vance also called for the parents of children to have more votes.

“My interpretation is that he is strongly family-oriented, but that doesn’t mean if you don’t have a family there’s something wrong with it,” Trump said Wednesday.

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner also asked Trump if Vance, a 39-year-old first-term senator, would be ready on “day one” if he needed to take over as president. Trump responded by downplaying Vance’s political impact.

“Historically, the vice president, in terms of the elections, does not have any impact, virtually no impact. You have two or three days where there’s a lot of commotion, as to who, like you’re having it on the Democrat side, of who it’s going to be, and then that dies down and it’s all about the presidential pick,” he said.

Trump repeats promise to pardon Jan. 6 rioters

Trump also stuck to his past statements when asked about pardoning Jan. 6 rioters, about 900 of whom have either plead guilty or been convicted in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"If they're innocent, I would pardon them," Trump said.

"They've been convicted," Scott reminded him.

Reaction

Kamala Harris's campaign wasted no time issuing a statement on Trump's interview, saying he was "showing exactly who he is."

Harris expanded on her response while speaking at a Sigma Gamma Rho sorority event in Houston Wednesday night, saying:

"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. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us, they are an essential source of our strength."

Trump, for his part, said afterward he "crushed" the interview despite what he considered offensive questions.

“The questions were Rude and Nasty, often in the form of a statement, but we CRUSHED IT!” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Some Republicans quickly condemned Trump’s remarks.

Senate candidate and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan criticized Trump’s remarks in an X post, shortly after his NABJ appearance.

“It's unacceptable and abhorrent to attack Vice President Harris or anyone’s racial identity,” the post read. “The American people deserve better.”

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski called Trump’s and Vance’s latest remarks against women “very unfortunate,” Axios reported.

“Maybe they don’t know how to handle the campaign, and so you default to issues that just should simply not be an issue,” said Murkowski. “Childless cat women, DEI candidates; now, ‘Is she Black? Is she Indian?’” she continued.