Donald Trump continued to raise false and incendiary questions about Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity for a second day Thursday, as Republicans watched the former president drive his campaign into a divisive and potentially damaging direction.
A day after telling an audience of Black journalists in Chicago that Harris had “all of a sudden” decided to become “a Black person,” Trump posted a photo on his social media site of Harris dressed in a sari with a caption stating: “Your warmth, friendship, and love of your Indian Heritage are very much appreciated.”
Trump also amplified posts from Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist, who had posted copies of Harris’ birth certificate and had spread false accusations that Harris has lied about her race.
Harris, whose father is from Jamaica and whose mother was Indian American, has long identified with both her Black and South Asian heritage.
An alumna of a historically Black institution, Howard University, she responded to Trump’s comments during her speech at a convention of Black sororities Wednesday, saying, “The American people deserve better.”
Republicans mostly rolled their eyes in private and held their tongues in public. David Kochel, a longtime Republican strategist, called the racial identity attack unneeded and risky when, he said, Trump had a clear case against Harris on policy grounds.
But Trump’s campaign instead leaned into his questioning of Harris’ heritage. At a rally Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday night, his campaign put headlines of her Indian American background on the big screens above the crowd.
As Trump’s comments ricocheted around the political world, politicians from both parties seemed to be trying to determine whether such an attack would be effective in 2024, amid a rapidly diversifying electorate. More than 12% of Americans identify as multiracial.
Democrats denounced him as racist.
“We need to fiercely call out this type of bigotry and ignorance,” Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost of Florida wrote on X, responding to Trump’s post Thursday of Harris in Indian garb. “
The rare Republican to criticize Trump was Larry Hogan, the former Maryland governor, who is running for Senate against a Black woman, Angela Alsobrooks, in a state where Trump is deeply unpopular. Hogan denounced Trump’s comments as “unacceptable and abhorrent.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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