Harris: Trump 'Black friends' comments 'insulting'
Vice President Kamala Harris offered a scathing rebuke of former President Trump’s claims that his recent indictments and convictions make him more appealing to Black voters.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe, Harris was asked about Trump’s comments about having "Black friends," in which the former president said he'd know if he was saying something racist because those friends would talk to him.
Trump also said a lot of Black people like him because they've been discriminated against and empathize with his own situation with the law.
Harris said these remarks were “insulting.”
“It's insulting for a number of reasons, including he has reduced the whole population of people down to a sum total of what is, in his mind, who they are,” said Harris. “And he's wrong. And he's wrong.”
Earlier this year, Trump said his legal woes have earned him the support of Black voters around the country.
“I got indicted for nothing, for something that is nothing,” Trump said at the event in February. “And a lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against.”
Trump has also come under fire from Black leaders across both sides of the political spectrum after pushing back on allegations of racism in an interview with Semafor.
“I have so many Black friends, that if I were a racist, they wouldn’t be friends; they would know better than anybody, and fast,” Trump said. “They would not be with me for two minutes if they thought I was racist — and I’m not racist!”
Both Trump and President Biden are hoping to build support among Black voters, particularly Black men, ahead of November’s election.
Though a majority of Black men lean Democratic, recent polling from Pew Research Center shows about 20 percent of Black men said they would vote for Trump if the election were held today.