Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice presidential nominee, on Wednesday defended his running mate Harris’ attacks on his race, calling her response “hysterical” and likening her to a “chameleon.”
Vance was asked by reporters on the campaign plane about comments made by former President Trump earlier in the day in which he mocked Harris’s heritage and falsely claimed she had “gone black.”
“Frankly, I think the media is overreacting to the point of hysteria,” Vance said on the way to a campaign rally in Arizona.
“The president doesn’t do any scripted bullshit. He actually goes in front of a hostile audience and answers tough questions, and he pushes back, but he actually answers them. It’s great to have an American leader who’s not afraid to go into a hostile place and actually answer tough questions,” Vance continued.
“I thought what he said was very funny. I think it pointed out the fundamental chameleon nature of Kamala Harris,” Vance said. “She’s changed her tune on every issue. She’s a fake. She’s a fake. Our whole campaign is going to have a blast pointing that out. It’s like the president just kicked us off the deep end.”
Not us First reported Regarding Vance’s comments:
Earlier in the day, during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists’ conference, Trump was asked about claims by other Republicans that Harris was elevated to the top of the Democratic field solely because of her race and gender.
“I’ve known her indirectly for a long time. I don’t know her very well in person,” Trump said. “She’s always been of Indian descent. And she’s always just promoted her Indian descent. I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago, when she happened to be black. And now she wants to be known as black.”
“So I don’t know if she’s Indian or black,” he continued.
“She has always identified as a black woman,” ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott interjected.
“But, you know, I respect both people. But she clearly isn’t. She’s been Indian her whole life and then all of a sudden she turns around and she’s black. I think somebody should look into that,” Trump said.
Harris is both Indian-American and African-American; her mother immigrated to the United States from India and her father immigrated from Jamaica. She attended Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, DC, where she was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Wednesday’s comments are not the first time President Trump or his allies have attacked Harris’ mixed race background.
Donald Trump Jr. in 2019 Shared, then deleted The tweet came from a right-wing account claiming Harris “is not a black person in America.”
Trump himself falsely suggested in 2020 that Harris might be ineligible to serve as vice president because her parents are immigrants, and was also a leading proponent of the false conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
