Washington
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, drew gasps on Wednesday when he stated on the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists conference that Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, had all of the sudden adopted a Black identification.
Harris’ father is from Jamaica, her late mom from India. Trump claimed: “I’ve recognized her a very long time, not directly, circuitously very a lot, and she or he was at all times of Indian heritage, and she or he was solely selling Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black till quite a few years in the past when she occurred to show Black, and now she needs to be generally known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian, or is she Black?”
As one of many journalists who was interviewing Trump on stage tried to inform him that Harris had at all times recognized as Black and had attended a traditionally Black school, Trump continued, “I respect both one, however she clearly doesn’t. As a result of she was Indian all the way in which, after which unexpectedly, she made a flip, and she or he went – she grew to become a Black particular person. And I believe any individual ought to look into that, too.”
Trump’s feedback prompted quick bipartisan criticism. Leaving apart the problem of the appropriateness of the remarks, his claims are simply not true.
Details First: Trump’s claims are false. Harris didn’t “unexpectedly” start figuring out as Black. She has embraced and mentioned her Black identification for many years, starting lengthy earlier than she grew to become a politician, whereas additionally honoring her South Asian heritage.
Harris graduated in 1986 from Howard College, a traditionally Black establishment the place she was a member of a historically Black sorority. After that, she was elected president of the affiliation of Black regulation college students in her second 12 months on the College of California, Hastings School of the Legislation, she wrote in her 2019 memoir.
Politico reported in 2021 that, as a third-year pupil on the regulation faculty in 1989, Harris rose to talk in opposition to anti-Black racism at a campus demonstration prompted by the invention of racist vandalism. Politico reported: “For Black college students, she stated, in response to archives of the Hastings Legislation Information, the cartoon was an instance of ‘what we take care of on a regular basis.’”
A profile of Harris within the publication AsianWeek in 2003, when she was operating for San Francisco district legal professional, was centered on her South Asian heritage. But it surely quoted Harris discussing her father as “a Black man” and saying, “I grew up with a powerful Indian tradition, and I used to be raised in a Black neighborhood. All my pals had been Black and we bought collectively and cooked Indian meals and painted henna on our palms, and I by no means felt uncomfortable with my cultural background.”
Harris’ official on-line biography in 2005 as San Francisco district legal professional referred to her as “the primary African American girl in California to carry the workplace” and famous that she had attended “America’s oldest black college.” She wrote in a 2009 book about her childhood journeys to each India and Jamaica, the place, she wrote, “my father and uncles would speak to us concerning the sophisticated struggles of the folks of Jamaica – the historical past of slavery, colonialism, and immigration.”
Her official online biography as California legal professional basic referred to her as “the primary African American girl and South Asian American girl in California to carry the workplace” of San Francisco district legal professional. In 2017, her first 12 months as a US senator for California, she spoke about how she was “the second Black girl elected to the US Senate.”
Harris wrote in the 2019 memoir about how her mom’s household instilled her and her sister Maya with “satisfaction in our South Asian roots,” but additionally that “my mom understood very effectively that she was elevating two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black ladies, and she or he was decided to verify we’d develop into assured, proud black girls.”
Harris said in one other 2017 speech: “Have a look at my very own life, the place a daughter of a South Asian mom and a Jamaican father concluded her personal interfaith marriage ceremony along with her husband breaking a glass and everybody yelling, ‘Mazel tov.’”
Trump made quite a few different false claims in his remarks on the Wednesday gathering.
Amongst different claims we now have fact-checked earlier than, Trump:
– Wrongly referred to Harris as President Joe Biden’s “border czar.” Her precise immigration-related assignment from Biden, to guide a diplomatic effort to deal with “root causes” of migration in three Central American international locations, was far more restricted.
– Falsely claimed that the US has its worst inflation in “over 100 years.” Even at its 9.1% peak throughout the Biden presidency, inflation was at a few 41-year excessive, and it has since plummeted to 3%.
– Falsely claimed he was “protected” underneath the Presidential Data Act for taking official paperwork after his presidency. That regulation actually requires presidents to return all paperwork to the federal authorities after they depart workplace.
– Falsely claimed that “everyone,” together with Democrats, wished Roe v. Wade overturned and the problem of abortion coverage returned to particular person states. In truth, polls have consistently shown about two-thirds of the general public as an entire and a fair greater share of Democrats had wished Roe to be preserved.
– Repeated his never-substantiated claim about overseas international locations opening up their prisons to permit criminals emigrate to the US.
– Falsely claimed that Haris “didn’t move” the bar examination. Harris failed on her first try, which is common in California, however then handed; she was admitted to the California bar in 1990, the 12 months after she graduated from regulation faculty. (Trump, showing to answer an objection from somebody within the crowd, conceded a bit later that Harris “perhaps” had handed.)
– Falsely claimed that “no one died” on January 6, 2021. 4 Trump supporters on the Capitol died that day, three from medical emergencies and one after she was shot by police whereas attempting to interrupt right into a delicate a part of the constructing. (Trump talked about the capturing proper earlier than he claimed no one died.) As well as, Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who was attacked with pepper spray during the riot, died after struggling strokes the following day; the medical expert discovered that Sicknick died of pure causes, but additionally told The Washington Post that “all that transpired performed a task in his situation.”
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Julie In contributed to this text.