Kamala Harris left listeners baffled as her notoriously shifting accent went through another transition in front of an audience of Black politicians in DC on Saturday night.
The Democratic nominee appeared eager to ingratiate herself with the crowd when she addressed the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation at its Awards Dinner in Phoenix.
“Hello to all my Divine Nine brothers and sisters!” he shouted to the diners. “And to all my HBCU brothers and sisters.”
“Kamala Harris is whatever you want her to be, depending on what audience she’s targeting,” one observer wrote on X.
‘But I give him credit for being able to change his accent for so many audiences!’
The vice president seemed eager to ingratiate herself with her audience at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner on Saturday night.
But many on social media were unimpressed with her attempt to appear relatable.
The vice president, who spent her childhood in San Francisco and Montreal, has long been accused of adapting her accent to the audience she addresses.
In 2020, on the campaign trail, he raised some eyebrows when he adopted a languid Southern drawl to enthuse a rally in Florida with the words: “We’ll tell you we were hanging out in a parking lot on this particular Saturday afternoon with Kamala.”
She unleashed her Dixie accent again in July at a campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia, when she told her audience: “You all helped us win in 2020 and we’ll do it again in 2024.”
In 2021, she was even accused of using an unconventional French accent while speaking to scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
And his latest change came just days after Michigan professors were left scratching their heads over his attempt at a demotic speech in Detroit.
“You may not be a union member, but you better thank a union member for the five-day workweek,” Harris told them.
“I’m from California. We all talk like that,” one X user sarcastically wrote along with a phonetic spelling of how Harris spoke in her comments: “I’ll be sure to thank my union member today.”
The vice president is of Jamaican and Indian descent and her vocal prowess has been seized upon by Donald Trump after his Republican rival accused her of using her blackness to her advantage when it suited her.
“I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago when she became black and now she wants to be known as black,” she said during the annual convention. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black?”
The vice president’s latest accent drew similar mockery from right-wing commentators after she tried it out on her mostly black audience on Saturday.
“Kamala Harris is speaking in front of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, so of course she suddenly developed a mysterious accent,” conservative pundit Benny Johnson tweeted.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the suggestion that Kamala Harris uses different accents “insane”
“New? Or is it her old fake black accent?” Paul A. Szypula asked. “Either way, it’s incredibly insulting to black people. Shame on Kamala.”
‘Kamala Harris revealed a new accent at the Black Caucus dinner,’ added Steve Guest.
“Despite having spent her childhood in Berkley, California and Montreal, Canada, Kamala uses what she believes to be a Detroit accent, a Southern accent, a French accent and more…” he added.
The White House declined to comment when asked about Harris’s volatile remarks earlier this month.
“I have no idea what they are talking about,” spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
“She was talking about unions in Detroit in one tone of voice,” noted Fox News’ Peter Doocy.
‘She used the same phrase in Pittsburgh, and it sounded like she had at least some sort of Southern accent.’
“Do you think Americans really think this is an important issue?” Jean-Pierre asked.
‘They care… You know what they care about? They care about the economy. They care about cutting costs. They care about health care. That’s what Americans care about.
“I’m not even going to consider any questions about it… hearing it sounds so ridiculous.
“It’s crazy,” he added.