Donald Trump was recently asked a challenging question at a town hall event hosted by Univision—name three positive things about his political opponent, Kamala Harris . This question echoed a similar one posed to Harris just a week prior. Struggling to come up with a response, Trump remarked, “That’s a very hard question. That’s the toughest question. The other ones are easy.” After his initial hesitation, Trump offered a mixed response. He first criticized Harris, saying she is “very bad for our country” but followed it with faint praise. He remarked, “She seems to have some pretty long-time friendships…she seems to have a nice way about her. I like the way, you know, some of her statements, some of her — the way she behaves in a certain way.”
Great job President Trump with the question asking which three (3) virtues do you recognize in Kamala Harris: “I’m not a fan but she seems to have an ability to survive. She seems to have some long time friendships. And she seems to have a nice way about her.” Watch entire… https://t.co/jwc9IPZVOk pic.twitter.com/sedzIYTwKo
— Bulldogs4Vivek 🇺🇸 (@Bulldogs4Vivek) October 17, 2024
As per AP News , the previous week, when Harris was asked the same question, she said Trump’s political approach ‘pains me,’ citing his divisive rhetoric. However, she eventually shared, “I think Donald Trump loves his family and I think that’s very important…But I don’t really know him. I only met him one time…so I don’t really have much more to offer you.” Intriguingly, Trump’s comments about Harris didn’t end there. In a separate interview on the ‘PBD Podcast,’ he reignited a long-standing controversy by once again questioning Harris’ racial and ethnic identity.
Trump names 3 nice things about Harris—meanwhile, Harris stumbles when asked the same! pic.twitter.com/UjhtVhTK0P
— Patrick Fahlen (@PatrickFahlen) October 17, 2024
Trump falsely claimed, “They have a woman who is Black, although you would say she’s Indian, but she is Black, but she really — a lot of people didn’t know, which is true.” The podcast host, Patrick Bet-David, agreed with Trump, even joking about Harris’ complexion in comparison to baseball player Sammy Sosa, who had lightened his skin. These comments continued Trump’s long history of making racially charged remarks and questioning Harris’ background.
Donald Trump ask for the definition of “DEI” then he tells Black journalists that Kamala Harris is of Indian heritage and she never identified as Black until recently! The crowd moans and laughs at him!! This dude is racist through and through. pic.twitter.com/NVihnZK3wU
— JustVent (@JustVent6) July 31, 2024
This was not the first time Trump had raised questions about Harris’ identity. In a July interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference, he falsely claimed, “I didn’t know she was Black until several 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?…she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went — she became a Black person,” as reported by ABC News .
Harris has repeatedly addressed Trump’s racially charged rhetoric, calling it an attempt to divide the country. During the September debate, she criticized Trump’s use of race to stoke division, stating, “Honestly, I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be a president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people …I think the American people want better than that, want better than this.” Though Trump’s campaign responded by downplaying his remarks, Harris and her supporters have consistently called out such comments as harmful and divisive.