U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has responded strongly to former President Donald Trump’s remarks challenging her racial identity, stating that the American people “deserve better.”
Harris emphasized that the country faced a critical choice between two contrasting visions and accused Trump and his campaign of attempting to push the nation “backwards.”
Harris was speaking at a Houston fundraiser on Wednesday, hours after Trump claimed that Harris, after being of “Indian heritage” for years, “turned black” a few years ago.
“In this moment, we face a choice between two very different visions for our nation. One focused on the future, the other focused on the past. And we in this room are fighting for the future,” she told the donors.
“As we work to move our nation forward…there are those who are trying to take us backward. You might have seen their agenda, they call it Project 2025 and it is a 900-page agenda of extremism,” Harris added.
Speaking on Project 2025, Harris claimed that it would raise taxes on the middle class, cut taxes on billionaires, and would end the Department of Education.
Attacking Trump further, the Vice President said, “We are not going back. We all remember what those four years were like, and today we got yet another reminder. This afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, and it was the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect. Let me just say, the American people deserve better.”
She added, “The American people deserve a leader who does tell the truth, who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that differences don’t divide us, they are an essential source of our strength.”
Trump made these remarks at a gathering of Black journalists in Chicago when asked why Black voters should support him despite his history of making racist attacks on political rivals. In response, he questioned Kamala Harris’ heritage.
