Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, quickly dismissed a ‘gotcha’ question from a reporter regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’ race during a trip to the southwest border on Thursday to highlight her failures to address the migrant and drug-smuggling crisis that began shortly after she and Joe Biden took office.
The CNN reporter, Steve Contorno, attempted to ask Vance about former President Trump’s comments at an event featuring black journalists where he suggested that she previously leaned heavily on her Indian heritage, but when it was politically expedient, she began to rely more on her Jamaican side.
“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.
Contorno noted that Vance is married to a woman of Indian descent and that the couple have three bi-racial children before asking if Trump’s comments gave him “pause.”
“No,” Vance began. “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.”
He continued: “I think it’s totally reasonable for the president to call that out, and that’s all he did.”
Vance, an 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.”
“It’s totally reasonable to call out the fact that she pretends to be somebody different depending on the audience she’s talking to,” he added.
WATCH:
JD Vance obliterates CNN reporter trying to race-bait about Kamala Harris: pic.twitter.com/HTHorM4zrj
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 1, 2024
The mainstream media appears to be trying to create another ‘controversy’ surrounding Trump’s remarks, but some older videos have resurfaced, giving them a lot of credibility.
One is from is from November 2019, when Harris joined actress Mindy Kaling, who is also Indian, for a cooking session. To kick it off, the future vice president and star of “The Mindy Project” discussed their shared Indian heritage:
KALING: “OK, so what we’re gonna cook today —”
Harris: “OK.”
KALING: “— is an Indian recipe.”
Harris: “Yes.”
KALING: “Because you are Indian.”
Harris: “Yes, yes, yes.”
KALING: “OK and I don’t know that everybody knows that. But I find that wherever I go and I see Indian people at the supermarket, on the street, everyone’s like, ‘You know Kamala Harris is Indian, right?’ It’s like our thing we’re so excited about to have you running for president.”
Harris: “Yeah.”
KALING: “So we’re both Indian.”
Harris: “Yes.”
KALING: “But actually, we’re both South Indian.”
Harris: “Yes, you look like the entire one half of my family.”
KALING: “OK, thank you.”
Harris: “You do. You do.”
KALING: “I’ve been telling people we’re related already so this is perfect. It’s basically true.” (Laughter)
WATCH:
Another video is a past campaign ad featuring Harris and then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden, where both heavily leaned on Harris’ Indian heritage.
WATCH:
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
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