At the close of the Republican Party convention where he was crowned the presidential candidate, Donald Trump, fresh from an attack, was trying to display moderation and poise. But that was last month, when he had an electoral tailwind and the polls gave him an ever-widening lead over his Democratic rival, Joe Biden. After the president’s decision not to run for re-election, and with Vice President Kamala Harris gaining ground in this eventful election campaign, the Republican has resorted to one of his favorite strategies: personal and racial insults.
Her appearance at the annual convention of black journalists in Chicago on Wednesday sparked controversy. Right from the start of her speech on a panel with three black journalists, she launched into a personal attack on her rival. “I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago, when she decided to become black and now she wants to be known as black.” “Is she Indian or is she black?” she insisted about the vice president, whose father is Jamaican and whose mother is Indian, who describes herself as black in her autobiography and who graduated from Howard University, originally created for African-American students. And she insinuated that she had only reached the position she now occupies because of her skin color, not because of her merits.
It was not the only comment that drew gasps of astonishment. Asked about the economy, he replied that “millions of immigrants” come to the United States to “take jobs from black people” (although he later clarified that he meant all kinds of jobs).
Without mentioning him, Harris responded hours later at a rally before a black women’s association: “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when the facts are put before him. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us.” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, herself African-American, demanded “respect” for the vice president in the face of Trump’s words.
The president’s comments were reminiscent of his comments against President Barack Obama in 2011, before he became a political candidate, questioning whether he was actually born in the United States. They also caused unrest even within his own party. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of the few Republican lawmakers who has not declared her support for Trump, considered the former president’s comments “very unfortunate.”
The criticism has not deterred him. The Republican presidential candidate posted a photo of Harris wearing an Indian sari on his social media on Thursday, implying again that the vice president is not black, but Indian. “Thank you, Kamala, for this beautiful photo you sent from many years ago! Your warmth, friendship and love for your Indian heritage are much appreciated,” he said.
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One in ten Americans, or 33.8 million, say they have two or more racial identities, according to the latest U.S. census from 2020. A decade earlier, that number was much lower, at nine million people. Former Trump spokeswoman Alyssa Farah Griffin has said that “most Americans, though apparently not Trump, understand the concept of being biracial, and talking about someone’s racial identity that way is offensive.”
Turn of speech
Just over two weeks ago, the former president had briefly shown a different face. At the Republican convention, with his right ear covered with a cumbersome bandage to remind him where he had been shot, he had wanted to present himself as a statesman. “The discord and division in our society must be closed,” he urged at the beginning of his acceptance speech. But his interventions throughout this week have made it clear that Trump continues to resort to the sarcastic rhetoric and personal attacks that he has made use of in this and other previous campaigns. On Tuesday he accused Harris, married to a Jewish businessman, Douglas Emhoff, of “not liking Jews.” And he said that if she becomes president she will be “a plaything” in the hands of other world leaders.
That is not exactly the strategy that Republican advisers recommend. These experts prefer to focus on the Democrat’s record and policy proposals, which they believe give them enough ammunition to block her rise in the polls. Instead, attacking her personal traits — “Kamala the Giggler,” as Trump often calls her at rallies for her frequent giggles, or “childless cat lady,” as Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance has referred to her — may backfire, they say. Some of those same characteristics may prove attractive to undecided voters.
“We need to focus on policy proposals,” Republican Senator Mike Rounds told the digital outlet Punchbowl News“That’s what the American people want and what will allow us to win.”
Trump’s remarks to black journalists came as the former president tries to court African-American voters, who traditionally form the Democratic electoral base but who during Joe Biden’s years in office had begun to move closer to the Republicans. The former president is scheduled to participate in a rally in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia and a majority black country. Harris held her largest rally there on Tuesday. Her audience was overwhelmingly African-American.
A new round of polls in the battleground states that will decide the outcome of the election, conducted by the conservative agency Public Opinion Strategies, showed on Thursday that Harris is ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania by 48% to 45% and in Wisconsin, by 48% to 46%. In Arizona and Nevada, the roles are reversed, with the Republican leading 48% and 46%, respectively, while the vice president has 43% and 45%. In Michigan, the two are tied at 45%.
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