Former President Donald Trump is facing criticism online for two words he used in response to a question during Tuesday’s presidential debate about the racial identity of his contested rival, Kamala Harris.
During the landmark event, moderator David Muir asked the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate why he thought it was appropriate to comment on his opponent’s racial identity.
Trump first responded: “I don’t know and I don’t care. I don’t care who she is. I don’t care.”
She said that “whatever she wants to be is fine with me,” but Muir clarified that what caused her to “go black” was because of Trump’s own words.
That’s when Trump said: “All I can say is that I read that she was not black, that she posted that. And I’ll say that. And then I read that she was black, and that’s fine.”
The choice of words she ‘posted’ is raising questions and sparked outrage on the internet.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during the presidential debate in Philadelphia on Sept. 10. During the debate, he was asked about his opinion on the vice president’s racial identity. Trump said, “The only thing I can say is that I read that she was not black, that she said she was not black.”
The choice of two words is often used vulgarly to suggest that a woman is sexually promiscuous.
“He was a complete racist and misogynist. In fact, he said she ‘got laid.’ Are his supporters okay with ‘locker room talk’ at a presidential debate? This says a lot about him,” wrote Tennessee Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson.
“I’m glad the moderators mentioned Trump’s line about Kamala Harris ‘going black’ and he, on his own, added ‘she got nervous.’ Wow!” wrote podcast host Wajahat Ali.
‘Shit, I missed the moment during the debate where Trump said Harris,’ Aaron Rupar wrote on X.
“The fact that he said ‘I read that she put…’ blew my mind,” another user posted on X.
“Did he say Harris was ‘angry’? Did I hear him right? Just when I think I couldn’t be more stunned and disgusted by this man, he digs deeper,” another wrote.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Trump campaign for a response.
Muir’s line of questioning was in response to an answer Trump gave in July in an interview before a gathering of black journalists in Chicago.
“She always had Indian ancestry and she just promoted that ancestry. 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,” Trump said.
Donald Trump was interviewed by a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago on July 31, where he attacked the vice president’s racial identity, claiming she “turned black.”
It was in response to a question about whether he agreed with other Republicans that the vice president was a “DEI hire.”
Trump’s “angry” comment at the debate seemed to go unnoticed at the time on the debate stage, but it quickly began to generate questions online.
After the former president’s response, Muir asked Harris what she thought about Trump’s comments about her racial identity.
“I mean, honestly, I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president and who, consistently throughout his career, has tried to use race to divide the American people,” the vice president responded.