A member of an MSNBC focus group of “mixed race voters” attacked Vice President Kamala Harris over her race — but it turns out Addul Ali (R-NC) is a GOP congressional candidate and pro-Trump podcaster.
Several weeks ago, Trump falsely claimed Harris once identified exclusively as “Indian-Americian” until “all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person.”
He and his allies have continued to make versions of this attack. VP Harris was asked about the smear during her joint interview on CNN Thursday night, and dismissed it quickly with a “Next question please.”
On Friday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Morgan Radford introduced her focus group package as a group of “mixed race voters” — one of whom explicitly agreed with Trump’s racial attack. But an onscreen graphic and post-package notation by Radford identified him as a GOP congressional candidate:
MORGAN RADFORD: Does the way that you identify racially impact your politics, or specifically, how do you plan to vote this election?
FOCUS GROUP MEMBER: I’m not going to lend my support behind someone who does not support people who look like me.
FOCUS GROUP MEMBER: I don’t think he sees me as a who I am.
MORGAN RADFORD: Former President Donald Trump. Yes. What about the rest of you?
ADDUL ALI: I just don’t think that Kamala Harris has anything vested in the finger, quote, Black or Hispanic experience. And so much as it would be identified by anybody that lives in those communities.
MORGAN RADFORD: You’re saying you don’t think that she can help Black or brown people?
ADDUL ALI: No. I mean, going to how it don’t make you Black.
MORGAN RADFORD: A conversation that quickly turned to this moment in a JulyBlackrview at the National Association of Black Journalists.
ADDUL ALI: 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. SBlackon’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?
MORGAN RADFORD: What did you think when you heard those comments?
FOCUS GROUP MEMBER: Highly offensive. I mean, I think probably every multiracial, mixed race biracial person has had the experience of someone else telling them that they are not something enough. I think it’s kind of triggering. Right?
FOCUS GROUP MEMBER: I think it is impossible to be bi racial in America, and I think that it requires that you’re covering all bases at all times. And, it requires constant recognition of both identities. And I think when Donald Trump says stuff like that about Kamala Harris and implies that she’s like picking a race for political advantage, it’s tapping into an incredibly familiar sentiment. You know, I think everyone on this panel can understand.
MORGAN RADFORD: The marine, a dual as Trump supporters, when you heard that comment as mixed people, how did it register with you?
FOCUS GROUP MEMBER: Well, my first thought was that wasn’t very well thought out. At the same time, though, when I heard it, I didn’t hear it as an attack on Blacks or Indians. I heard it more so of him commenting towards identity politics and the appeal that some take to play up one side of their race over the other.
MORGAN RADFORD: Addul I see you nodding your head.
ADDUL ALI: I agree with him. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know she identified as Black because everything I saw was first South Asian, first Indian. There’s none of that identified as Black.
MORGAN RADFORD: Regardless of her parents. I mean, she was born in this country, and she identifies as a Black person in this country in an American way. And a uniquely.
ADDUL ALI: I never heard her identify herself as a Black woman.
MORGAN RADFORD: She said multiple times, she’s a Black woman.
ADDUL ALI: I’ve never heard it.
MORGAN RADFORD: I should note that one of the gentlemen we spoke to there, a dual Ali, is currently a Republican candidate for North Carolina’s 12th Congressional district. His opponent is Representative Alma Adams, who was elected back in 2014.
Ali is also the co-host of a pro-Trump podcast.
MSNBC has not responded when asked if Mr. Ali identified himself prior to the focus group.
Watch above via MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
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