‘Kamala Harris is a Black Woman’: Trump’s 2020 Campaign Made Clear What Trump Now Doubts

Former President Donald Trump sparked controversy on Wednesday when he doubted Vice President Kamala Harris’s racial identity, claiming she “turned” Black in recent years. Trump’s comments to the National Association of Black Journalists led to quick and thorough fact-checks of his remarks, one of which noted that Trump’s own 2020 presidential campaign referred to Harris as a “Black woman.”

The Associated Press ran a headline after Trump’s comments that read, “Donald Trump falsely suggests Kamala Harris misled voters about her race.” In the article, the AP thoroughly broke down Harris’s long history of identifying as a Black woman of mixed heritage.

“Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the U.S. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation’s most prominent historically Black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting legislation to strengthen voting rights and to reform policing,” wrote the AP.

The article also noted that Trump’s 2020 campaign felt the same way when it was useful to deflect attacks that Trump was racist. The AP explained:

After Biden picked Harris as his running mate four years ago, a Trump campaign spokesperson then pointed to a previous Trump political donation to Harris as proof that he wasn’t racist.

“The president, as a private businessman, donated to candidates across all aisles,” the spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, told reporters. “And I’ll note that Kamala Harris is a Black woman and he donated to her campaign, so I hope we can squash this racism argument now,” Pierson said.

The irony of Trump running on having donated to a “Black woman” he now has accused of turning Black for political gain was not lost on many observers and pundits.

Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien shared the AP article on X and wrote, “Trump’s campaign in 2020 tried to deflect criticism of his racism by noting that he had given $$ to Harris: “And I’ll note that Kamala Harris is a Black woman,” a Trump spokeswoman helpfully pointed out.”

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