JD Vance described Kamala Harris as someone who “fakes who she is depending on the audience that she’s in front of.”
On Wednesday, August 7, JD Vance attempted to clarify Donald Trump’s inquiry about Kamala Harris’ racial identity. A journalist later questioned him and said, “How can you fake your race?” Vance continued by outlining his beliefs about Harris’s “fakeness.”
“She pretends to be one thing when she’s in front of one audience, she pretends to be something else when she’s in front of another audience, and I think [Trump] was observing the basic foundational reality that Kamala Harris pretends to be something different depending on which audience she’s speaking to,” Vance said in the state of Michigan.
“She’s not real,” he continued.
Vance continued by equating Harris with “a chameleon.” “I was not bothered at all by what President Trump said,” Vance stated. “We know she’s a chameleon.”
“If she’s both Indian and Black, how can she fake her race?” the questioner then said to Vance.
“She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she’s in front of,” Vance responded. “She has always been that way; that is who she is.”
NEW: JD Vance shuts down reporter who tries race-baiting him over Kamala Harris.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 7, 2024
Reporter: "How can [Kamala] fake her race?"
Vance: "She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she's in front of, and that's who she is, and that's who she's always been."
During her… pic.twitter.com/FM59S0usgU
What did Donald Trump say about Kamala Harris’ racial identity?
Interviewer at the National Association of Black Journalists meeting in Chicago questioned Trump if he agreed with Capitol Hill Republicans who call Harris a “DEI hire.” Trump retorted, saying, “She was always of Indian heritage, and her only advocacy was for Indian heritage.” She turned Black a few years ago, and now she wants to be called Black. Before then, I had no idea she was Black. Thus, I’m not sure if she’s Black or Indian.
Speaking afterward, Harris described the former president’s remarks as “the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect” at a Houston Sigma Gamma Rho sorority event. She said, “Let me just say that the people of America deserve better.”
According to a later analysis by the Reuters Fact Check team, Harris has consistently identified as Black, South Asian, Indian-American, African-American, and Jamaican-American. These are all derived from the identities of her parents. Thus, it is impossible to accept Trump’s assertion as factual.
