HOUSTON: The US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump falsely suggested to the country’s largest annual gathering of Black journalists on Wednesday that his Democratic rival Kamala Harris had previously downplayed her Black 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,” Trump said, drawing a smattering of jeers from an audience of about 1,000 people.
“So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black? Trump continued. Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, has long self-identified as both Black and Asian.
Hours after Trump’s comments, Harris told members of the historically Black sorority Sigma Gamma Rho gathered in Houston: “It was the same old show of divisiveness and disrespect,” Harris said. “The American people deserve better.”