Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday called former President Trump’s false claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating pets a “deplorable disgrace” and slammed her opponent for “spouting a lie based on an old trope.”
Speaking at a panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, Harris said Trump has a long history of using racist tropes and discriminating against black people in particular.
She cited several examples of Trump’s controversial actions on race, including his “birthplace lie” about former President Barack Obama’s birthplace to a black family living in one of his housing developments, and his support for the death penalty for the “Central Park Five” defendants, five black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly convicted and later acquitted of assaulting and raping a white woman while she was out jogging.
“This is not new,” Harris said. “It’s not new in terms of these metaphors, it’s not new in terms of where they come from.”
Harris spoke on a panel moderated by three Black journalists to an audience that included NABJ members and journalism students at historically Black colleges and universities.
Speaking at the NABJ annual conference in Chicago in July, Trump engaged in a testy interview with three black female reporters in which he questioned Harris, an Indian and Jamaican immigrant, about her black identity.
Trump falsely accused Harris of changing her racial and ethnic identity over time, claiming, “For many years, she has always been Indian and has just promoted her Indian ancestry. I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago, then she happened to become black, and now she wants to be known as black. So I don’t know. Is she Indian or is she black?”
“I have respect for both people, but she clearly does not,” Trump said, drawing boos and cheers for his comments on this and other topics.
Harris’ office said at the time that she did not attend the NABJ convention due to a scheduling conflict.
Harris’ most scathing criticism of her opponent on Tuesday came after Politico White House correspondent Eugene Daniels asked her about verbal attacks by Trump, his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and their allies against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. The small city has seen a string of bomb threats, many of which are expected to arrive after 2015, that have led to evacuations at schools and government buildings. Trump and Vance have repeatedly made false claims that Haitian immigrants eat dogs and cats. Trump calls these immigrants illegal, though most are legal U.S. residents.
“It’s literally deplorable what’s happening to the families and children in that community,” Harris said.
Harris said her “heart aches” for the Haitians in Springfield.
“There were kids, elementary school kids. It was school picture day. Remember what it was like going to school on picture day? They were in their best clothes, they were all prepared, they had decided the night before what they were going to wear, and then they had to evacuate. Kids. Kids! The whole community was terrified,” she said.
Harris said she believes Americans want to move away from Trump’s “hateful rhetoric” and say, “This is exhausting, this is harmful, this is hateful and it’s based on ancient ideas that we should not tolerate.”
Trump has recently shared memes on his Truth Social account, including an image of himself rescuing animals and a group of kittens holding up a sign that reads, “Don’t let them eat you. Vote for Trump.”
His son, Donald Trump Jr., joined right-wing activist Charlie Kirk last week in making the racist claim that Haitians are less intelligent than people of other countries, saying, “If you look at Haiti, if you look at the demographics, if you look at the average IQ, if you import the Third World into your country, it’s going to be the Third World.”
In the interview, Harris defended her administration’s economic policies, saying she and President Biden took office at a time of high unemployment and economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Harris said the country’s economic crisis was largely due to “the mismanagement of the previous president.”
“Are food prices still too high? Yes,” she said. “Do we still have work to do? Yes. And I believe we can provide this country with a new generation of leaders.”
Janiya Thomas, the Trump campaign’s Black media director, said in a statement Tuesday that Harris “acknowledged that she let Black Americans down today,” adding that “her failed policies have made grocery prices soar and the American Dream unattainable for young Americans.”
Harris also said in the interview that she called Trump after the apparent assassination attempt on Sunday at Trump’s golf club in Florida.
“I made sure he was OK,” she said, “and told him what I’ve said publicly: There is no place for political violence in our country.”
