We asked 10 Republican senators: ‘Is Kamala Harris Black?’ Things got weird fast.
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans weren’t ready for former President Donald Trump to wade into the realm of Vice President Kamala Harris’ race and ethnicity while speaking Wednesday to a room of Black journalists.
But Trump did. And now the GOP is dealing with the fallout.
In Chicago, Trump told attendees of a National Association of Black Journalists convention that Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was "Indian all the way" until “she became a Black person” in recent years. (Harris’ mother is Indian and originally from India, her father is Black and originally from Jamaica.)
So Raw Story took Trump’s claim to 10 Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
‘What?’
“Is Kamala Harris Black?” Raw Story asked Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) about Harris, who served in the U.S. Senate from 2017 to 2021.
“What?” Tuberville exclaimed.
“That came up for debate yesterday by the head of your party,” Raw Story explained.
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“I don’t get in those debates,” Tuberville said. “Is she an American — that's what I don’t know. Is Trump an American? If they’re both Americans, naturalized citizens, hey, they get an opportunity to run for president.”
“Are you convinced that she is?”
“A citizen?” Tuberville asked. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Some people are saying Trump's comments yesterday are a throwback to birtherism under Obama.”
“I don't get in that debate. Come on,” Tuberville said. “We need to talk about policies.”
“Curious — is Kamala Harris Black?” Raw Story then asked Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) after he voted in the Capitol on Thursday.
“Yes, we know what her ancestry is. She's half Indian, half Jamaican,” Johnson replied.
“Do you need to educate the former president on that?” Raw Story asked of Trump. “Or do you think he knows that?”
“He's just pointing out that she's kind of claimed different heritages at different times in her political career. That's true, isn't it? He's pointing out the truth,” Johnson said. “You can question whether that was the smart thing to point out, but he's just pointing out what the truth is.”
Trump made GOP leaders — present and next gen — squirm
“Senator McConnell, is Kamala Harris Black?” Raw Story asked the Senate minority leader and he and his security detail made their way to the Senate floor. “It seems to be up for debate in your party.”
McConnell — who’s announced he’s stepping down as the Republican Senate leader after the November elections — smiled and, per the leader’s usual, said nothing as he walked onto the Senate floor.
The next generation of Republican leaders weren’t so stoic.
“Is Kamala Harris Black?” Raw Story asked McConnell’s former right hand man, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who’s vying to replace him.
“I can assume we're all a combination of different genetic gene pools, so I don't know,” Cornyn told Raw Story. “I think we're all sort of a mixture.”
McConnell’s current number two appeared annoyed by the question.
“As far as I know,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) — who’s also running to replace McConnell — told Raw Story. “I'm focused on the issues.”
The third Senate Republican running to replace McConnell came with a proverbial doctor’s note.
“Is Kamala Harris Black?” Raw Story asked as an elevator took Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) up to the Senate floor for a vote.
“I didn't hear the comments,” Scott told Raw Story.
“He said ‘she turned Black recently,’” Raw Story noted.
“I’m always talking about issues,” Scott said.
Another reporter interjected: “Do comments like that make you feel uncomfortable in any way?”
“I didn't see the comment,” Scott replied.
“Do you avoid TV and the paper just to not have to talk about Trump?” Raw Story pressed.
“Actually, I don’t watch enough TV,” Scott said as he laughed. “Actually at the time I was giving a speech on the Senate floor.”
“Yeah?”
“I really was,” Scott said.
“Saved by the bell.”
GOP war on Democrats’ identities
But Democrats fear this bell has only begun to ring as Harris and Trump — and their revved up bases — now sprint toward the election.
“I assume so. She says so,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Raw Story while walking to his office after voting. “I think she's Jamaican-American, right? And Indian.”
“What’d you make of that exchange yesterday?” Raw Story pressed.
“Here's what I think. My issue is not how she describes herself or her heritage — that’s totally up to her — my issue is what she says she’s going to do as president," Hawley said. “It's with her policies, which I think are insane.”
“Some people say it’s Trump stoking Charlottesville — ‘they will replace us’?” Raw Story said, referencing the racist Unite the Right demonstrations of 2017 that left one woman dead.
“Well, you will never convince me that Donald Trump is racist,” Hawley — who infamously revved protestors up by raising his clenched fist on Jan. 6, 2021 — said. “I don't think he's racist at all.”
Hawley continued: “I thought he was needling her a little bit and that racial identity politics are just inherently malleable. And, frankly, absurd. I mean, yes, she's an Indian-American. She's a Jamaican-American. Most Americans are multiple — something-American. And, you know, they've got ‘White Dudes for Kamala’ and ‘Asian Pacific Islanders for Kamala.’ I mean, the whole thing is just, most people look at this, like, ‘this is ridiculous.’”
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) — who views the entire exchange as “careless politics” — let out a squeak of laughter when asked, “Is Kamala Harris Black?”
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“Well, she's a woman of color,” Cramer replied. “And she said — and she's a — from what I know and what I read — she's a Black. Part Black. She's part Indian. And both are wonderful.”
Cramer continued by offering that “when identity politics play a role — or racial identity — plays a role in hiring practices or nominating, you can hardly complain about it if that's the credential that got you the job. In her case, I think what … President Trump's intent was, she's the one that wasn't Black in her own mind —- not in anybody else's — and then when it's convenient, she becomes Black. That's his point.”
Cramer added: “I've seen interviews of some other people of color that were really good, because what I think happens is … I think, it's already baked in to those people. To other people who don't want color to be the reason that people look at them as successful, they're offended by her,” Cramer said. “But again, it's not that he's necessarily wrong. As entertaining as it is, there's no need to do it.”
As for Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), she, too, said she wasn’t that familiar with Trump’s take on Harris’ race.
“I didn't really see it. Obviously, it's been in the news,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) told Raw Story. “I think sticking to the policies is the better strategy here. And so I'll leave it at that.”
Outside the Senate chambers Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) trashed Harris’ record as vice president and highlighted her connection with Biden.
“She and Joe Biden have spent four years undermining our friends and allies and showing weakness and appeasement to our enemies, which has led to endless wars and chaos abroad,” Cruz said.
“Is she Black?” Raw Story asked Cruz of Harris.
Cruz didn’t reply as he walked away onto the Senate floor to vote.