Here we have the reincarnated Donald Trump, just as before.
The new chapter in this increasingly bitter presidential campaign began with the former president’s tirade about the racial identity of Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee. The claim that the first Black woman elected vice president “happened to turn Black” recently, for political gain, was false and offensive.
Nearly three weeks ago, Trump and a handful of optimistic supporters speculated that the 78-year-old’s near-death experience would initiate a paradigm shift in his outlook on life. “The discord and division in our society must be healed,” Trump said in his prepared speech to the Republican convention a few days later. For a little while, that lofty discourse persisted. The GOP nominee, forgoing the teleprompter and returning to his usual material, gave a victory speech that was both exceptionally lengthy and frequently petty.
There has been little progress, as was made very obvious during Wednesday’s interview-turned-confrontation with reporters at a Black journalist convention in Chicago. Along with his remarks regarding Harris, Trump scolded Rachel Scott, a senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, and attacked his own running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, claiming that his choice would “have no impact” on the race.
Some of Trump’s backers and opponents voiced their concern that Biden, who had previously stated his intention to step down and essentially give the Democratic nomination to Harris, would manage to run against Harris, a Black woman, after Biden’s announcement ten days earlier.
His public appearances on Wednesday clarified the answer.
At a rally in central Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, Trump reiterated his remarks from Chicago in social media posts and his speech, which elicited a raucous from the audience when Obama was mentioned.
The insane Kamala is claiming to be Indian rather than Black. This is significant. Absolute nonsense. Her racial identity is just one of several tools in her arsenal. True Social was Trump’s platform.
His introduction in Harrisburg by Trump lawyer Alina Habba was yet another ominous preview of things to come.
“Relatively speaking, Kamala,” she exclaimed, wildly mispronouncing the vice president’s name. “My ancestry and my place of origin are clear to me.”
More complicated questions will arise in the days and weeks ahead. Who knows what Trump, who spearheaded the racist “birther” conspiracy against Obama and who praised the “very fine people” among the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, will say or do if Harris keeps the momentum going for her candidacy.
Harris, who was born to Jamaican and Indian parents and grew up in Oakland, attended a historically Black college, and would make history if she were to become president if she were to win in November. She would also be the first woman of color, Black woman, and Indian American.
This entire campaign has been marked by “a taste of the chaos and division,” according to her spokesperson, who slammed the incident in response to Trump’s comments.
Speaking at a Houston historically Black sorority event just hours after Trump’s remarks on the panel, the candidate recited her standard talking points in a top-down fashion. Next, she turned to deliver her much-anticipated response, all the while smiling wryly.
He appeared at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists this afternoon, and it was the same old show—divisiveness and contempt,” she remarked, stopping to let the buzz build. The American people are deserving of better, I must say.
A leader who is honest with the American people is what they deserve, she went on to say. A leader who, when faced with reality, does not react violently and angrily. A leader who can see past our differences and unite us is what we need. Their support is crucial to our success.
Quickly resuming her pitch, Harris warned that Republicans linked with Trump will launch a “full-on attack on hard fought, hard won fundamental freedoms and rights” by skirting the issue of a nationwide abortion ban rather than outright rejecting it. (In accordance with the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 that reversed Roe v. Wade, Trump has stated that the states should make the decision.)
When it comes to abortion rights, Harris is more outspoken and confident than Biden was. She will likely use the 96 days before the election to highlight the Democratic edge on that subject and, judging by her words on Wednesday night, mostly let Trump handle the situation on his own.
The second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Harris’s husband, and other Democrats delivered more severe sentences. Speaking to contributors in Maine on Wednesday, Trump said that Trump’s comments revealed “a worse version of an already horrible person.”
