Former President Donald Trump said he does not care how Vice-President Kamala Harris identified racially.
Harris' mother was from India and her father is from Jamaica. She identified both as black and Indian American.
"I don't, and I don't care," Trump said at the presidential debate when he was referencing the earlier statement. "I don't care what she is. I don't care if you make a big deal out of something. I couldn't care less. Whatever she wants to be is okay with me."
When the moderators pushed back, reminding him of his earlier statement, he said, "So I don't know. I don't know. I mean, all I can say is, I read where she was not black that she put out, and I'll say that. And then I read that she was black, and that's okay. Either one was okay with me. That's up to her."
In July, Trump had said at a black journalists' conference, "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?" Trump said.
Asked to respond to Trump's new position on the issue, Harris said, "I think it's a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be President who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people. You know, I do believe that the vast majority of us know that we have so much more in common than what separates us, and we don't want this kind of approach that is just constantly trying to divide us, especially by race."
"And let's remember how Donald Trump started. He owned land, he owned buildings, and he was investigated because he refused to rent property to black families. Let's remember this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of five young black and Latino boys who were innocent. The Central Park Five took out a full-page ad calling for their execution. This is the same individual who spread birth lies about the first black President of the United States. And I think the American people want better than that. Want better than this. Want someone who understands as I do. I travel to our country. We see in each other, a friend. We see each other, a neighbour. We don't want a leader who is constantly trying to have Americans point their fingers at each other," she added.
Trump hit back, saying, "This is the most divisive President in the history of our country. There's never been anything like it. They're destroying our country, and they come up with things like what she just said, going back many, many years when a lot of people, including Mayor Bloomberg, agreed with me on the Central Park Five, they admitted, they said they pleaded guilty. And I said, well, if they plead guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person, ultimately. And if they plead guilty, then they plead we're not guilty ...I built one of the greatest economies in the history of the world, and I'm going to build it again."
(With inputs from IANS)
