Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday told a group of Black journalists that he didn’t know Vice President Kamala Harris was Black.
“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 during a question-and-answer session at the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention in Chicago. “Is she Indian or is she Black? 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.”
Trump was asked about comments made by other Republicans, including a Tennessee Republican who called Harris a diversity, equity and inclusion “hire.” An interviewer asked Trump if he agreed with Republicans who made such comments and if he thought Harris was only on the ticket because she was Black.
The panelists also asked Trump questions ranging from past comments he had made criticizing Black reporters, whether he would pardon those convicted in their involvement in the Jan. 6 riot, inflation’s effect on the Black community, police immunity, his campaign partner J.D. Vance’s controversial comments, abortion and Trump’s age. One panelist attempted to ask about “Project 2025,” a conservative think tank’s set of policy proposals that Trump’s campaign has disavowed, but ran out of time.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Trump’s comments about Harris “repulsive.”
Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, attended Howard University, a historically Black college.
Trump also said he bailed out struggling historically Black colleges and universities during his time in the White House.
Trump signed a bipartisan bill in 2019 to permanently send more than $250 million a year to the nation’s historically black colleges and universities.
