‘It was the same old show’: Kamala Harris responds to Trump’s attacks on her racial identity

Kamala Harris has shrugged off Donald Trump’s questioning of her racial identity , saying that it was “the same old show” and that “America deserves better”, at a rally in Texas.

Related: Incredulous laughter, audible gasps: Trump’s performance at Black journalists’ panel left him exposed

On Wednesday, in an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) , Trump antagonised senior Black journalists and questioned Harris’s race, saying, “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.”

His interview, which was meant to last an hour, according to Axios, was cut short after 34 minutes.

In Houston, Harris appeared unruffled and kept her remarks on Trump’s comments brief.

“This afternoon,” she said, pausing for boos from the crowd. “Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists.”

“And it was the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us – they are an essential source of our strength.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was speaking at the Sigma Gamma Rho’s 60th International Biennial Boulé, the Black sorority’s gathering of its entire membership in Houston, Texas. Harris said she was there “as a proud member of the Divine Nine” – a group of Black fraternities and sororities in the US. Harris is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

The Harris campaign said in a statement: “The Donald Trump America saw at NABJ is the one Black voters have known for years.”

On Wednesday evening, Trump spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania, his first in the state since the assassination attempt against him last month.

Trump said of Harris, “Don’t forget. Four weeks ago she was considered, like, the worst,” and that she had had a “personality makeover … All of a sudden she’s considered the new Margaret Thatcher”.

As supporters waited for Trump at the rally, which started an hour late, giant screens displayed a 2016 Business Insider headline referring to Harris as the first “Indian-American US senator”.

On Wednesday evening in Maine, Harris’s husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff – who was himself subjected to attacks from Trump this week – said Trump’s remarks in Chicago reflected “a worse version of an already horrible person”, the Washington Post reported . “He should never be near the White House again.”

“The insults, the BS – it’s horrible, it’s terrible, it shows a lack of character,” Emhoff said.

White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was speaking to journalists as Trump made his remarks on the NABJ panel . Asked about the comments, which a journalist read out to her, she at first said she would be “super careful”, then changed her mind. “Wait. No, no, no,” she said.

“As a person of colour, as a Black woman who is in this position,” she said, referring to her role, “What he just said, what you just read out to me is repulsive. It’s insulting.”

Harris was the only person qualified to say what her identity was, she continued.

“And I think it’s insulting for anybody – it doesn’t matter if it’s a former leader, a former president – it is insulting.”