Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Florida) downplayed criticism of former President Trump for his attacks on Vice President Harris’ race and heritage, which were denounced as racist.
Donalds told George Stephanopoulos in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the comments are no big deal.
Trump said in an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on Wednesday that Harris “happened to turn out to be black,” implying that she lied about her race to gain political advantage.
“This is really a fake controversy,” Donalds said. “I do not really care. Most people don’t.”
The congressman blamed the Associated Press for the attacks, falsely claiming that the news outlet’s coverage of Harris’ election as the first Indian-American senator supported Trump’s comments.
“If we want to be precise, when Kamala Harris entered the United States Senate, it was the AP that said she was the first Indian-American United States senator,” Donalds said. “In fact, this was discussed a lot when she entered the Senate. Now she’s running nationally, obviously the campaign has changed. They’re talking a lot more about her father’s heritage and her black identity. It doesn’t really matter that the president mentioned it.”
Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed Donalds to say that denying Harris’ black heritage was wrong, which he dodged. The interview later turned into a heated discussion on the matter, with the two men talking over each other.
“The AP did not say that Kamala Harris is not black. She is biracial. She is Indian. She’s black,” Stephanopoulos said. “You keep repeating the slander. I don’t understand why you and the president do this, but it’s clear. You’re not going to say it’s wrong, and now you’ve established that for our audience.”
Trump too shared a copy of Harris’ birth certificate on Truth Social last week, appearing to mimic his attacks on former President Obama’s heritage and racist “birtherism” conspiracies.
Harris’ campaign strongly denounced the attacks, and political analysts predicted the comments could hurt Trump’s appeal among black voters.
“The hostility that Donald Trump demonstrated on stage today is the same hostility that he has demonstrated throughout his life, throughout his term and throughout his campaign for president, as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda. to the American people. ” Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement last week.
Top Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), encouraged party members to tone down attacks on Harris’ race after several members called her a “DEI contractor,” comments that were denounced as racist .
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
