Donald Trump suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris had decided to “turn Black” for political gain, as he attacked his Democratic White House rival during a combative and inflammatory interaction with African American journalists in Chicago.
The Republican former president’s provocation marked an escalation of the 78-year-old’s vitriol against Harris, whom he falsely accused of having identified as Indian but then, “all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she became a Black person.”
Trump told a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists that Harris, who has long identified as Black and graduated from a historically Black university, “was always of Indian heritage” but then “happened to turn Black.
Trump’s identity assault was at the heart of a hostile interaction with Black reporters, one of whom he berated for asking about his history of offensive remarks about Black people.
The combative remarks by Trump, who has been eager to improve his performance with Black voters, are likely to send shockwaves through the 2024 White House contest.
They come as the former president, convicted two months ago of felony fraud related to hush money payments to a porn star, struggles to formulate a new strategy less than 100 days before the election.
