Sept. 11 2024, Printed 1:08 a.m. ET
Donald Trump side-stepped his claims about Kamala Harris “turning Black” as he was questioned in regards to the controversial remarks through the first debate to function the political rivals.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the GOP candidate modified his tune by saying he “could not care much less” about his opponent’s racial identification.
Throughout Tuesday’s heated debate on the ABC stage, co-moderator David Muir requested: “Why do you consider it is acceptable to weigh in on the racial identification of your opponent?”
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The previous president responded: “I do not, and I do not care. I do not care what she is. I do not care. You make a giant deal out of one thing — I could not care much less. No matter she needs to be is OK with me.”
Muir then replied: “However these had been your phrases, so I”m asking —”, earlier than Trump lower him off and continued: “I do not know, I do not know. I imply, all I can say is I learn the place she was not Black that she put out, and I will say that, after which I learn that she was Black. And that is OK. Both one is OK with me. That is as much as her.”
The query was in reference to feedback Trump, 78, made on the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists in July. The Republican presidential hopeful advised Harris, 59, was deceptive voters when it got here to her ethnicity as he mentioned she “occurred to show Black” simply in the previous few years.
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He added on the occasion final month: “I didn’t know she was Black till quite a few years in the past … and now she needs to be often known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
Harris. whose mother and father are Indian and Jamaican, was the primary Black girl and Asian American to win the vice presidency.
After Trump’s pivot throughout Tuesday’s debate, the VP supplied her ideas on the matter, saying: “Actually, I believe it is a tragedy that now we have somebody who needs to be president who has constantly over the course of his profession tried to make use of race to divide the American folks.”
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She slammed the true property tycoon for being “investigated as a result of he refused to hire property to Black households” — harkening again to the Nineteen Seventies, when Trump’s firm was investigated by the FBI over alleged discrimination. He and his father ended up settling a lawsuit filed by the Justice Division over the claims.
Harris additionally mentioned: “Let’s bear in mind, this is identical particular person who took out a full-page advert in The New York Occasions calling for the execution of 5 younger Black and Latino boys who had been harmless, the Central Park 5.”
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She continued along with her race-related grievances towards the previous president, saying: “This is identical particular person who unfold birther lies in regards to the first Black president of the Usa, and I believe the American folks need higher than that.”
Trump fired again: “That is probably the most divisive presidency within the historical past of our nation, there’s by no means been something prefer it. They’re destroying our nation they usually give you issues like what she simply mentioned, going again many a few years”.
He then defended his actions in regard to the Central Park 5, a gaggle of boys wrongly convicted of rape in 1989, saying: “They pled responsible, and I mentioned effectively in the event that they pled responsible they usually badly damage an individual…”
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Trump turned his focus again to Harris as he continued: “This can be a individual that has to stretch again years, 40, 50 years in the past, as a result of there’s nothing now.”
Their fiery back-and-forth additionally noticed Trump accuse Harris and her operating mate, Tim Walz of supporting of “child executions“, which the VP denied.
The Democratic candidate took jabs at her opponent as effectively, joking at one level about MAGA supporters “leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and tedium.”