MSNBC news reporter Yamiche Alcindor was in the room for the National Association of Black Journalists question-and-answer session with Donald Trump and reported that even among political experts, people were "gasping" at his comments.
Speaking to Nicolle Wallace for "Deadline White House" Wednesday, Alcindor called it "remarkable" and "something to behold."
"To see former President Trump in front of a group of Black journalists who invited him to answer questions about policy, about his views on the campaign trail, about his views about America and his vision for the future, and to have him go after Vice President Harris in this way that is really, questioning her identity, questioning her authenticity, was really, something to behold," she said.
She noted that she has followed Harris for over a decade and that she has always been clear about her identity and talking about her background she got from both her mother and father.
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Harris's mother was Indian, and her father was Black and of Jamaican descent.
Fox News commentators quickly called Trump's comments "an absolute dumpster fire."
"She talks about how that — that background and her parents meeting at civil rights activist, taking her to protests in a stroller, that she had her identity really, really very clearly understood. Understood her identity as from what she was a little girl," continued Alcindor. "So, to hear him say she had been claiming to only be Indian and only now is talking about being African American is just frankly not true."
Harris went to Howard University, a historically Black college, and is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first intercollegiate historically African American students.
"She has time and time again throughout her career talked about the importance of racial justice and tying it back to her own identity, so this really is something that I think is — it is really hard to fathom that former President Trump thought that this insult, this attack was going to land," said Alcindor.
That's when she pointed out that the comments certainly didn't "land" for those people of color in the audience.
"I was sitting in the room and people were stunned," she said. "To take you behind the scenes, people were stunned, people were gasping. Some people who were shouting back at him, saying that's a lie. So, the room, the atmosphere, I think, was already sort of tense because this is the president who has attacked a member of the National Association of Black Journalists."
A CBS News clip showed some of the audience's responses.
Trump was ultimately rushed off the stage before the hour was up.
See the full comments from Alcindor below or at the link here.
Reporter says 'stunned' audience of Black journalists were 'gasping' at Trump youtu.be
