Vice President Harris on Wednesday responded directly to former President Trump after he mocked her heritage earlier in the day, saying the American people deserve better than the former president.
Trump said that Harris was “always of Indian heritage” and then “happened to turn Black” during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention.
“It was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect,” Harris said about Trump’s remarks.
“And let me just say, the American people deserve better,” she said. “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.”
Harris, who is Indian American and African American, attended Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C., and was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Her remarks on Wednesday were at the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.’s 60th Biennial Boule in Houston to celebrate another member of the Divine Nine, which is made up of Black fraternities and sororities.
“In this moment, once again, our nation is counting on you. To energize to organize and to mobilize,” she told the crowd. “Because when we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize nations change and when we vote, we make history.”
Harris also criticized Trump over Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s outline for the next GOP presidency, which Trump and his campaign have tried to distance themselves from.
“As we work to move our nation forward, let us be clear, there are those who are trying to move us backward,” she said.
She told them that a pillar of her campaign is freedom and vowed to defend the freedom to love who you love, the freedom to learn America’s full history, and the freedom for women to make decisions about their own bodies, among other freedoms.
“Bring it on, those who would dare to attack those fundamental freedoms,” she said.
Harris also gave keynote speeches at Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.’s Grand Boulé in Indianapolis last week and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.’s 71st Boulé in Dallas earlier this month.
