White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre live-reacted in the briefing room on Wednesday to Donald Trump’s “happened to turn Black” NABJ comments about Kamala Harris.
“If I can ask you about something that’s happening at the NABJ right now, Donald Trump is speaking to some of the reporters who were assembled there and right out of the gates there was what can best be described as a contentious exchange,” NBC News’ Peter Alexander began, before reading aloud a transcript of the former president’s comments during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago.
“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. And now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know. Is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said in the interview when asked at the NABJ convention whether he thinks Harris is on the Democratic ticket only because she is a Black woman.
“She has always identified as a Black woman. She went to a historically Black college,” ABC News’ Rachel Scott, one of the interviewers, interjected.
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way. And then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went, she became a Black person,” Trump continued.
The room of reporters audibly reacted as Alexander read out the statements.
“As a Black woman who is in this position that is standing before you at this podium, behind this lectern, what he just said, what you just read out to me, is repulsive, it’s insulting, and no one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify,” Jean-Pierre responded.
“She is the vice president of the United States,” Jean-Pierre added. “We have to put some respect on her name, period.”
