Vice President Kamala Harris responded to former President Donald Trump’s comments that he didn’t know she was Black.
“I think it’s 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,” Harris said. “We don’t want a leader, who is constantly trying to have Americans point their fingers at each other.”
ABC News anchor David Muir asked the former president if he felt it would be appropriate to comment on the racial identity of his opponent, referencing the comments he made at the NABJ convention in August. The former president doubled down, saying he does not care what Vice President Kamala Harris’ race is.
“I don’t care what she is,” Trump said. “I couldn’t care less.”
Harris, who is the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, called for the American people to consider the kind of leader they would want as their next president. Harris laid out several instances, in which the former president belittled others based on their race.
“Let’s remember this is the same individual, who took out a full page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of five young black and Latino boys who were innocent–the Central Park Five–took out a full page ad calling for their execution. This is the same individual who spread birther lies about the first Black president of the United States. And I think the American people want better than that, want better than this,” Harris said.
The vice president added that Trump’s incessant “belittling and namecalling” is not productive for the American people.
“Regardless of people’s 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,” the vice president said.
Tuesday night’s debate may be the final debate matchup between the two presidential candidates. Trump has proposed to debate the former prosecutor on Fox and NBC News, but neither the networks nor the vice president have agreed to those dates.
