Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, was confronted on Fox News on Sunday about Donald Trump‘s recent remarks about Vice President Kamala Harris‘ racial identity.
The former president sparked a firestorm Wednesday after he questioned if Harris was Black at a National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago, suggesting that the presumptive Democratic nominee only recently “became a Black person” after years of “only promoting Indian heritage.”
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was always only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know. Is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said while answering questions at the convention. “I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t. Because she was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and she went—she became a Black person. I think somebody should look into that too.”
The daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, Harris identifies as both and if elected, Harris would be the first female and first Asian American president. She would be the second Black president after Barack Obama.
In response to Trump’s comments, Harris said at a campaign rally in Houston, Texas, that the former president’s remarks were “the same old show.”
“The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts,” the vice president added. “We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us; they are an essential source of our strength.”
During an interview appearance on Fox News Sunday, anchor Shannon Bream spoke about Trump’s comments and asked Graham, “Doesn’t this kind of language alienate millions of Black voters including from your state?”
According to DataUSA, 25 percent of South Carolina residents are Black or African American as it is the second largest ethnic group in the state.
“Yeah, 30 percent of my state is African American…So here’s what I would say to [former] President Trump, the problem I have with Kamala Harris is not her heritage, it’s her judgment…Everyday we are talking about her heritage and not her terrible, dangerous liberal record throughout her entire political life. It’s a good day for her and a bad day for us. I would encourage [former] President Trump to prosecute the case against Kamala Harris’s bad judgment,” Graham, a Trump ally, said.
Bream, meanwhile, pushed back and asked the senator, “It doesn’t seem like he received that message yet. He had an introductory speaker last night sort of double down on this conversation. Would you advise that he just stop talking about that?”
Graham responded: “I think Mr. President, this is your election to lose, it’s important to win to reset a broken board and get the world in good order…Let’s win this election. Let’s win an election we can’t afford to lose,” the senator added.
Newsweek has reached out to Graham’s office and Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
The strongest GOP criticism of Trump’s comments about Harris came from former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who is running against a Black woman for a U.S. Senate seat. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Hogan called it “unacceptable and abhorrent” for people to “attack Vice President Harris or anyone’s racial identity.”
Former Trump White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah Griffin warned on X on Wednesday that his comments won’t just hurt him with the Black community since “most Americans (but apparently not Trump!) understand the concept of being biracial and that to talk this way about anyone’s race is offensive.”
One in 10 Americans identify as multiracial, according to the 2020 U.S. census. The demographic has grown exponentially in the past decade, from 9 million people in 2010 to 33.8 million in 2020—a 276 percent increase.
Some conservatives have defended Trump and doubled down on his remarks, perpetuating the idea that Harris has not always identified as Black.
Podcaster Benny Johnson posted a clip to X on Wednesday of Harris winning a Senate election in 2016 and wrote, “Kamala Harris brags about becoming the ‘First Indian Senator in American History’ So…”
However, several prominent Republicans had previously steered the party away from going after Harris’ racial or gender identity, instead urging colleagues to focus on her policies.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis warned that Republicans are not “gaining ground” when they comment on “anything but this Biden administration’s failed economy, failed border, failed national security.”
In July, the House GOP’s campaign arm sent talking points to members in competitive races suggesting that they present Harris as “an extreme San Francisco progressive who is out of step with the American people.” It did not include any mention of her race or gender.
