Lamarie Austin-Stripling, a mixed-race voter from North Carolina, said during a “Morning Joe” segment on Friday that she does not “feel some kinship” with Vice President Kamala Harris.
A group of mixed-race voters, including Republican North Carolina congressional candidate Addul Ali, shared their opinions on Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Stripling said she only sees Harris, who herself is a mixed-race candidate, “giggling and having a girl moment” during her public appearances instead of tackling the major crises facing the U.S.
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“I find a lot of [Harris’] trajectory to not be my brand of woman [or] leader,” Stripling said. “We’ve got three major international crises going on, and somebody applying to be Commander-in-Chief. As a woman, I want to see you do more than appeal to giggling and having a girl moment on the stage.”
Harris, who has a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, has branded herself as an historic candidate breaking glass ceilings, though The New York Times wrote on July 24 that her Indian heritage is “little advertised.” Indian-Americans told the Daily Caller in early August that Harris only touts her Indian heritage when it is “convenient” for her.
Trump said he was not aware that Harris was black during his appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on July 31, claiming she always identified as Indian until she wanted “to be known” as black.
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“Well, I can say no, maybe it’s a little bit different,” Trump said. “So, I have known her a long time indirectly, not directly very much. 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?”
“I respect either one,” Trump continued as one of the hosts pushed back. “I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went and became a black person.”
A voter in the swing state of Wisconsin pondered whether Harris lied about her heritage while talking to ABC News host Martha Raddatz on Sunday.
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Former CNN host Don Lemon and The Grio White House correspondent April Ryan got into a heated debate on whether Harris is “black” or “African American” during a February 12, 2019, segment on CNN. Lemon argued Harris is not African American since her father is from Jamaica.
Harris dismissed reports that she is not African American during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” on February 11, 2019.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.