Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance swiftly countered a race-baiting question from a CNN reporter, redirecting the focus onto Vice President Kamala Harris and her use of divisive identity and race-based politics during a visit to the southwest border on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Trump attended the National Association of Black Journalists convention — an event that Harris blew off this week — and faced immediate criticism from reporters. ABC’s Rachel Scott, without presenting evidence, suggested that Trump was an irredeemable racist by citing his criticisms of far-left prosecutors like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County DA Fani Willis, without providing any instances of Trump discussing race in her questioning. Trump also pointed out, correctly, that in the past, Harris has alternated emphasizing her dual Indian and Jamaican heritage depending on her audience.
“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 told the crowd, drawing some jeers. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black? Trump continued. “But you know what, 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 added.
The CNN reporter, Steve Contorno, pointed out that Vance is married to a woman of Indian descent and that the couple has three biracial children. He then asked if Trump’s comments gave him “pause.” He responded: “No. All he said is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She goes to Georgia two days ago, she was raised in Canada, she puts on a fake Southern accent. She is everything to everybody and she pretends to be somebody different, depending on which audience she’s in front of. I think it’s totally reasonable for the president to call that out, and that’s all he did.”
The Ohio Republican then pointed out that Harris “is running as a tough-on-crime prosecutor” despite her lack of emphasis on pushing for the enforcement of border laws. “She says she wants to support the police, yet she wanted to defund the police just three years ago.” He added: “It’s totally reasonable to call out the fact that she pretends to be somebody different depending on the audience she’s talking to.”
WATCH:
JD Vance obliterates CNN reporter trying to race-bait about Kamala Harris: pic.twitter.com/HTHorM4zrj
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 1, 2024
Harris, along with President Joe Biden, have definitely made attempts to score political points using her Indian heritage. They even ran campaign ads touting her as the first candidate with Indian-American heritage to be nominated as vice president during the 2020 cycle:
Latest media-generated ‘Trump controversy’: “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.
He was right-again. ? pic.twitter.com/wtMTAH2g1C
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) August 2, 2024
