White House Fires Back After Trump Answers Question About Harris Being Called a ‘DEI Hire’
White House Called Trump’s Comments ‘Insulting’
Trump at NABJ: ‘You Invited Me Under False Pretense’
Former President Trump recently gave a crowd at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago something to talk about, and it’s not what he thinks. It all started when ABC News’ Rachel Scott asked him if he agreed with Republican lawmakers who have characterized Vice President Kamala Harris as a ‘DEI’ hire.
Now, Trump being Trump, he couldn’t just give a straightforward answer. Instead, he chose to dive headfirst into controversial waters by questioning Harris’s racial identity. ‘I’ve known her for a long time, indirectly, not directly… and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,’ Trump said. ‘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?’
Oh, but it doesn’t stop there. He continued to question her identity in the most Trump-like way possible. ‘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 became a Black person,’ said Trump. ‘I think somebody should look into that.’
Harris’s campaign communications director, Michael Tyler, wasted no time firing back. He issued a statement that could singe the eyebrows off a statue. ‘The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people,’ Tyler said. ‘Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency — while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in. Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us.’
Tyler didn’t stop there. ‘Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign. It’s also exactly what the American people will see from across the debate stage as Vice President Harris offers a vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans. All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on September 10.’
The fun didn’t stop there. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also weighed in, calling Trump’s comments ‘insulting.’ She made a strong point: No one has any right to tell someone who they are.
‘How they identify, that is no one’s right. It is someone’s own decision,’ Jean-Pierre said. ‘Only she [Harris] can speak to her experience. Only she can speak to what it’s like. She’s the only person that can do that. And I think it’s insulting for anybody. It doesn’t matter if it’s a former leader, a former president. It is insulting.’
Then, because of course there’s more, Trump took to his own platform, Truth Social. He posted, ‘The questions were Rude and Nasty, often in the form of a statement, but we CRUSHED IT!’
In 2016, The Associated Press reported that then-California Attorney General Harris became the first Indian-American to become a U.S. senator. Four years later, when then-Vice President Biden tapped Harris as his running mate in the 2020 presidential election, Harris was referred to as the first Black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket.
To give you a bit of background, Harris, born in 1964 to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, spent much of her formative years in Berkeley, California.
