Donald Trump’s audacious lie about Vice President Kamala Harris’ race confirmed what many had long suspected: running against a Black woman could summon the former president’s worst impulses.
Why it matters: Amid outrage from Democrats and discomfort from Republicans, Trump is doubling down on his incendiary claim that Harris recently “became a Black person” for political convenience.
- In one fell swoop, Trump hijacked a news cycle dominated by the enthusiasm surrounding Harris’ campaign — and redirected attention to his long and controversial record on race.
- It’s a nightmare for Republicans already reeling from the tightening race: They know Trump has a strong chance of beating Harris on the issues, but fear he could alienate swing voters with attacks on her identity.
The big picture: Trump’s political rise began with a yearslong crusade to delegitimize the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama.
- Much has changed since 2011, but Trump has never strayed far from the conspiratorial and racist roots of the birther movement.
- In 2020, Trump said he had “heard” that Harris was not born in the U.S. and thus “doesn’t meet the requirements” to be vice president. Harris was born in California.
- Even during the GOP primary earlier this year, Trump falsely claimed that rival Nikki Haley was ineligible to be president because her parents weren’t U.S. citizens when she was born.
What they’re saying: “Let me just say: The American people deserve better. The American people deserve better,” Harris said at a historically Black sorority event in Houston, accusing Trump of putting on the “same old show” of “divisiveness and disrespect.”
- Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a potential VP pick for Harris, was more direct, telling CNN that Trump’s attacks were “overtly racist.”
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