Republican lawmakers have been wary of using the politics of diversity, equity and inclusion to criticize Vice President Harris, with some urging former President Trump to stick to the “issues.”
Sen. John Thune (R-Lausanne) said Trump’s path to victory was to debate the issues and not dwell on race, after Trump mentioned Harris’ race at an event with the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago.
“The campaign needs to be and it has to be focused on the issues. And there’s a lot to debate. I think that’s what we need to focus on. That’s how we win the election in November,” Thune told reporters when asked about Trump’s comments.
During his remarks at the NABJ, Trump appeared to joke about Harris’s origins, appearing confused about whether she was Indian or black.
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Republican lawmakers have been wary of using the politics of diversity, equity and inclusion to criticize Vice President Kamala Harris, with some urging former President Trump to stick to “the issues.” (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I’ve known her indirectly for a long time. I don’t know much about her directly,” 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.”
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“So I don’t know if she’s Indian or black,” he added.
House Speaker Mike Johnson urged Republican lawmakers not to use DEI tactics in attacking Harris. (Reuters/Evelyn Hochstein)
House Speaker Mike Johnson also urged Republican lawmakers not to use DEI tactics when attacking Harris.
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“This election is about policies, not about personalities. It’s not personal about Kamala Harris,” Johnson said at a press conference last week. “Her ethnicity and gender have absolutely nothing to do with this election.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) was quick to respond to Trump’s comments on Wednesday.
“Let me tell you what it’s not. It shouldn’t be a surprise. This is who Donald Trump is. This is the politics of insults, revenge, resentment and retribution, and I suspect we’ll be hearing these words all the way through to November,” he said.
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“At the end of the day, I think the American people are going to reject that. They know what Kamala Harris represents,” he continued.
“Here’s a woman, the daughter of a Jamaican man and an East Asian immigrant mother. She went to Howard University and is married to a Jewish man,” Warnock added. “She embodies in her life the American pledge: ‘E Pluribus Unum,’ which is out of many, one. Donald Trump doesn’t understand that.”
