For the first time since she became the Democratic nominee for president, addressed head-on the false claims made by Donald Trump about her racial identity, as well as the former president's history of racial division throughout his public life.
During Tuesday night鈥檚 , Trump was asked why he felt comfortable during a recent appearance at a conference of Black journalists to falsely claim that the vice president after previously emphasizing her South Asian heritage. Harris, who is the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, rejected the premise that she has to defend her own racial identity.
But Trump, standing a few feet away from Harris, claimed he no longer cared about the topic.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 care what she is,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 care less. Whatever she wants to be is okay with me.鈥�
He then repeated falsehoods about Harris鈥� identity, saying, 鈥淎ll I can say is I read where she was not Black鈥� And then I read that she was Black, and that鈥檚 okay. Either one was okay with me. That鈥檚 up to her.鈥�
In a recent televised interview as the Democratic nominee, a CNN journalist asked Harris to respond to Trump鈥檚 remarks about her race. She curtly dismissed his comments as 鈥渢he same old playbook.鈥�
But on Tuesday, she took time to address it directly.
鈥淗onestly, I think it鈥檚 a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president, who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people,鈥� Harris said.
Harris then fit Trump鈥檚 comments into her broader critique of the former president, who her campaign has cast as divisive and backward-looking in a nation exhausted by bombast. While Harris would be a pioneering candidate should she be elected as the nation鈥檚 first woman of color president, her campaign has downplayed such framing, instead focusing on themes of freedom and unity.
鈥淚 do believe that the vast majority of us know that we have so much more in common than what separates us, and we don鈥檛 want this kind of approach that is just constantly trying to divide us, and especially by race,鈥� she added.
Harris then reminded debate views about Trump鈥檚 decades-long history of racial division, going back to when the Justice Department him and his father, Fred Trump Sr., for refusing to rent to Black tenants. She then mentioned that he called for the death penalty for the 鈥淐entral Park Five,鈥� Black and Latino youths who were falsely accused of rape in New York City in the late 1980s, which Trump defended in a brief rebuttal.
鈥淎 lot of people, including Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg, agreed with me on the Central Park Five,鈥� Trump said, before falsely saying the youths had pleaded guilty to the sexual assault and brutal beating of a white female jogger in 1989.
The five young men who were wrongly convicted had their convictions vacated in 2002 after evidence linked another person to the crime. In the spin room after the debate, Yussef Salaam, one of the five men exonerated, held up a sign bearing his name as Trump walked through speaking to journalists. Salaam was also elected to the New York City Council last year.
Harris, during the debate, noted how Trump spread the false 鈥渂irther鈥� theories about President Barack Obama being ineligible to serve as president because he was foreign-born and lacked a U.S.-issued birth certificate.
鈥淚 think the American people want better than that, want better than this,鈥� Harris said.
鈥淚 meet with people all the time who tell me, can we please just have discourse about how we鈥檙e going to invest in the aspirations and the ambitions and the dreams of the American people, knowing that regardless of people鈥檚 color or the language their grandmother speaks, we all have the same dreams and aspirations, and want a president who invests in those, not in hate and division,鈥� Harris went on to say.
Civil rights leader Marc Morial of the National Urban League said he found Harris鈥� debate performance overall to be 鈥渕asterful.鈥�
鈥淪he did a wonderful job both baiting him and sticking him,鈥� he said in a phone interview after Tuesday evening鈥檚 debate. 鈥淪he was prepared, she was disciplined, and she baited him and got him off track.鈥�
On the topic of race, Harris nailed Trump on his rhetoric and troubling record, Morial added.
鈥淏y raising the Central Park Five, raising the lawsuits against him, she brought important facts into the equation of his long, long record prior to becoming president,鈥� he said. 鈥淗is response continued the kind of outright disrespect of Black America that is part and parcel of his career.鈥�
Matt Brown And Aaron Morrison, The Associated Press
