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Trump falsely suggests Harris ‘turned Black’ 

From CNN's Eric Bradner

Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Wednesday that his 2024 rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, “turned Black” a few years ago after “all of a sudden she made a turn” in her identity. 

Trump’s comments, at a gathering of Black journalists, came when an interviewer asked why Black voters should consider backing a candidate with his history of racist attacks on political rivals. Trump responded by questioning Harris’ heritage. 

“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. 

“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,” he said. “I think somebody should look into that, too.” 

Trump’s comments are reminiscent of similar attacks on Black political rivals in the past — including the years he spent pushing the false, racist “birther” conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Harris’ mother was Indian and her father is Jamaican; both immigrated to the United States. Harris was born in Oakland, California, and attended a historically Black university, Howard University, in Washington, DC. She is the first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president.