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Hulk Hogan proves that Trumpworld can't resist attacking Kamala Harris' racial identity
By Mia Jankowicz,
4 days ago
Hulk Hogan, a Trump campaign surrogate, at the Republican National Convention in July.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Hulk Hogan reignited Trump's attack on Kamala Harris' racial identity at a recent event.
The WWE star and Trump surrogate made a racist joke and asked if Harris was Indian-American.
Some of the GOP can't seem to resist these attacks, despite warnings from Speaker Mike Johnson.
One of former President Donald Trump's lines of attack against Vice President Kamala Harris' racial identity has been given a fresh lease on life by his GOP surrogate Hulk Hogan.
The WWE Hall of Famer was seen making a racist joke, commenting on Harris' Indian heritage, as well as asking if she was a "chameleon," during a promotional event for his new beer on Monday night.
He also offered to "body slam" Harris, to chants of "yeah!" from the crowd.
Hogan's remarks — which he quickly attributed to booze — look set to reheat tensions created by the widely condemned comments Trump made at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in July.
There, Trump falsely said that Harris "happened to turn Black" after having primarily presented herself as Indian-American.
In response, Harris said the comments were "the same old show" of "divisiveness" and "disrespect."
'You want me to drop the leg on Kamala?'
Excerpts from Hogan's Monday night appearance included:
"You wanna get crazy?" Hogan asked the crowd, evincing a cheer after each question.
"You want me to throw more beers out? You want me to body slam somebody? You want me to body slam Kamala Harris?
"I said — do you want me to body slam Kamala Harris? You want me to drop the leg on Kamala?" he continued, referring to one of his signature wrestling moves.
He then moved on to Harris' racial identity.
"Is Kamala a chameleon? Is she Indian? OK, I like it," he said, before raising his hand in a gesture that is stereotypically understood as a Native American greeting. "How," he said, to laughter from the crowd.
Hogan appeared to immediately backtrack: "I'm gonna get heat for that one, brother. That was not me, that was the beers talking," he said.
WWE fighters regularly embody hyper-violent and often unsavory caricatures both inside and outside the ring.
When contacted by Business Insider, Hogan's talent agency doubled down on the Trump-style attack.
"Now she is running for president, to get the votes of the Black Americans, she and the media are putting her second identity in focus — now she is the first Black presidential candidate."
Bose added that Richard Paraiso, the Empire Agency's cofounder, is Black and didn't consider the remarks racist.
Kamala Harris is, of course, neither the first Black presidential candidate nor the US's first Indian prosecutor. But should she win the election, she would notch several firsts, including becoming the first female president in the country's history.
The Hogan episode will do little to assuage the fears of those in the Republican Party who are concerned that Trump's campaign is honing in on racial and gender attacks at the expense of the party's policy platform.
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