You’ve likely heard by now that 78-year-old Donald Trump appeared at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago yesterday where he falsely claimed Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black” only a few years ago.

“She was always of Indian heritage, 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. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” he said.

He also insulted ABC News’ Rachel Scott–who, like Harris, is also a Black woman–calling her “rude,” “horrible,” and “disgraceful” and saying she worked for a “fake news network” after she asked him about his history of racist and racially-charged language.

Shortly after his campaign cut the NABJ interview short (it was supposed to last an hour, but he was pulled from the stage after just 34 minutes), the septuagenarian went on Truth Social to double down on his false claims that Harris is “Indian, not Black” and to call her a “stone cold phony” who “uses everybody, including her racial identity!”

His racist remarks have been met with widespread criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.

One House Republican told Axios what the party’s standard bearer said was “awful” and questioned Trump’s ability to contain his darkest impulses as the campaign enters into the home stretch.

Another House Republican cautioned, “That was not a demonstration on how to win over undecided voters.”

And Sen. Lisa Murkowski suggested Trump’s campaign is in over their heads with Harris, saying, “Maybe they don’t know how to handle the campaign, and so you default to issues that just should simply not be an issue.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not mince words when she called the attack on Harris’ identity “repulsive” and “insulting” when asked about them during a press conference yesterday.

“No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify,” she said. “That is no one’s right.”

Meanwhile, out Florida lawmaker Shevrin Jones, a Biden and Harris campaign surrogate and rising star in the Democratic party, likened the whole thing to birtherism.

“Hey Republicans, remember how the ‘birther attack’ worked out for you in 2008!” he tweeted. “Keep going, it’s a great strategy!”

And then there was Trump’s archnemesis Rosie O’Donnell, who took to TikTok yesterday evening to ask the question so many people have been wondering: “Who booked him there? Who booked him today at that event?”

The answer, of course, is his campaign. It has been desperately trying to make inroads with Black voters after he received just 8% of their support in 2020. Somehow, we don’t think yesterday’s NABJ debacle is going to help improve those numbers this time around.

In her TikTok, Rosie went on to say the 34-time convicted felon “hung himself” with his comments about Harris.

“I don’t know what it’s going to take for you people to understand exactly who he is,” she continued. “Watch that interview. That’s Exactly. Who. He. Is. Cruel and racist and misogynistic and sexist and horrific.”

She, of course, knows this better than anyone.

Rosie’s been the target of Trump’s attacks since her days on The View, when she criticized his treatment of a crowned Miss USA. He responded by spending the last 15 years calling her a “fat pig” and a “slob” any chance he gets, including on the 2015 Republican primary debate stage.

In yesterday’s TikTok, Rosie also praised the sitting veep and her campaign for getting voters so pumped up about this year’s election and for making people from all different communities and backgrounds feel seen.

“I am so indebted to the Kamala Harris campaign for instilling in me the belief that lives in all of us: Hope!” she said. “We’re not doomed, ladies and gentlemen. And Donald Trump is going down, down, down, down.”

“All people want now is authenticity. And he doesn’t have an authentic bone in his orange, flabby body… Authenticity wins the day.”

@rosie

wednesday ramble #kamala #standup #clay #autism #olympics

? original sound – Rosie ODonnell

Harris, for her part, has taken the high road in her response to Trump’s remarks about her identity.

Rather than stooping to his level, she said “the American people deserve better” from their leaders, while addressing members of a historically Black sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, yesterday evening.

“The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us. They are an essential source of our strength,” she said.

Harris, whose father is Jamaican and mother is Indian, attended Howard University, a historically Black college, and is the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected as Vice President of the United States of America.

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