Trump lies to Black journalist convention crowd and says Kamala Harris 'happened to turn Black' a few years ago

Donald Trump attacked Kamala Harris during an on-stage interview at the National Association of Black Journalists' conference.

• Donald Trump falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris "turned Black."
• Trump made the claim during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference.
• The former president was also asked about his history of racist comments.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Vice President Kamala Harris, falsely claiming that the first Black female vice president had just recently "turned Black."

"I've known her a long time, not directly, indirectly, and she was always of Indian heritage," Trump said during a panel interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. "And she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. And now she wants to be known as Black."

According to some journalists in the room, there were audible gasps when Trump made his statement. At the start of the interview, Rachel Scott, an ABC News reporter, asked the former president about his long history of dismissing Black people, including pushing the racist theory that President Barack Obama was not a US citizen.

Scott asked Trump if he considered Harris to be a "DEI hire," an attack some Republicans have used against the vice president and likely Democratic presidential nominee.

Harris is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. In 2019, she told The Washington Post that she had not thought much about her racial identity before entering politics. She said that she simply identified as "an American."

Harris has also made it clear for years that she identified as an African-American.

"My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters," Harris wrote in her autobiography, "The Truths We Hold." "She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women."

Asked about Trump's comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded with shock.

"What you just read out to me is repulsive," Jean-Pierre said when Trump's statement was read to her. "It's insulting. No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify."

Harris' campaign responded by calling out "the hostility" Trump showed during the interview.

"The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people," Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign's communications director, said in a statement.

Trump has repeatedly disavowed Project 2025, though many of his former administration officials were involved in crafting the conservative agenda.