Rep. Byron Donald (R-Fla.) downplayed criticism of former President Trump for attacking Harris on her race and heritage, which have themselves been condemned as racist.
During an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Donald told George Stephanopoulos that the remarks were a big deal.
In an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference on Wednesday, Trump said Harris “just happened to be black” and suggested she lied about her race for political advantage.
“This is really a false controversy,” Donald said. “I don’t really care. Most people don’t care.”
The congressman also blamed the Associated Press for the attack, falsely claiming that the news agency’s reporting on Harris being elected as the first Indian-American senator corroborated Trump’s comments.
“To be precise, when Kamala Harris became a US senator, it was the Associated Press that said she was the first US senator of Indian descent,” Donald said. “When she became a senator, that was actually emphasized quite a bit. Now, as she is campaigning across the country, the campaign has obviously shifted gears. They are talking a lot more about her father’s heritage and her identity as a black person. Whether the president mentioned it or not is not really important.”
After Stephanopoulos repeatedly told Donald it was wrong to deny Harris’ black heritage, Donald brushed him off, and the interview devolved into a heated argument over the issue, with the two men sparring with each other.
“The Associated Press has never said Kamala Harris is not black. She is mixed race. She is Indian. She is black,” Stephanopoulos said. “You continue to repeat the slur. I don’t understand why you and the president do it, but it’s clear. You won’t say it’s wrong and you’ve just proven it to our viewers.”
Trump too He shared a copy of Harris’ birth certificate. Last week on Truth Social, he made remarks that mimicked his attacks on former President Barack Obama’s bloodline and the racist “birtherism” conspiracy theory.
Harris’ campaign has strongly condemned the attack, and political analysts have predicted the comments could hurt Trump’s approval rating among black voters.
“The hostility Donald Trump displayed on stage today is the same hostility he has displayed throughout his life, throughout his time in office and throughout his campaign for president as he sought to regain power and impose his harmful Project 2025 policies on the American people,” Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement last week.
After several party members called Harris a “DEI hire” and condemned her comments as racist, Republican leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), urged party members to tone down their attacks on Harris’ race.
