Kamala Harris responds to Trump's shock claim he 'didn't know' she was black while urging historic African American sorority to 'fight for our future'

Kamala Harris has responded to Donald Trump's Wednesday rant where he claimed she 'happened to turn black' a few years ago.

Taking the stage at the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.'s 60th International Biennial Boulé in Houston, Harris addressed the interview hours before, where Trump insisted that 'all of a sudden, she made a turn'.

His comments came at a gathering of black journalists in Chicago, as an interviewer asked him whether he agreed with Republican sentiment that his rival is a 'DEI hire.'

Asking the journalist 'to define DEI', he went on to question Harris's heritage.

The Vice President, in turn, said 'the American people deserve better,' in a speech that also urged the African-American sorority to 'fight' because 'there is so much at stake.'  

'This afternoon Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists', Harris said during her speech.   

'And it was the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect.

'Let me just say, the American people deserve better. 

'A leader who tells the truth,' she went on. 'Who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands our differences do not divide us.

'They are an essential source of our strength,' she added.

She appeared to attempt to stay above the fray seen since the interview, however, electing to not directly quote it or refer to the comments aired by the conservative earlier in the day.

Instead, she continue to talk down her competitor and his long-finished presidential term, which she framed as unsuccessful and something to be left in the rearview. 

The sorority she spoke to is a member of the 'Divine Nine,' a group of distinguished black sororities and fraternities that have rushed to vote on Harris's behalf.

Harris thus thanked them for getting her and Biden elected, and suggested they have the power to do it again come November.

'I believe in the promise of America. And aren't so many of us empirical evidence of the promise of America,' Harris, who is a member of a different Divine Nine sorority, said. 

'Greater service brings greater progress,' she continued, before listing some of the historic sorority's accomplishments.

'You helped elect Joe Biden as the president of the United States and me as the first woman Vice President of the United States.' 

'Our nation needs you,' she went on.

Vowing to take on big pharma, landlords, big banks, and corporations and champion the middle class, she defiantly declared: 'We are not going back.'

Harris also spoke of the so-called 'promise of America' - one that she said consists of 'greater service and greater progress.'

She addressed the current cost-of-living crisis and concepts like equal pay for women, before briefly touching on the elephant in the room - Trump's controversial comments.

It started when ABC's Rachel Scott, seated opposite the Republican, mentioned how a lot of people didn't think it was appropriate for him to be in Chicago considering his past comments about people of color, including Indian-American Nikki Haley.

‘First of all I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,’ Trump told Scott, calling the journalist 'nasty' and 'hostile' in a unintentional ode to his 2016 campaign. 

‘You don’t even say hello how are you?’ Trump went on, before slamming ABC as a 'fake news network.'

‘I came here in good spirit. I love the black population of this country,’ he continued.

'I think it's a very rude introduction. I don’t know exactly why you would do something like that,' he said.

That's when he offered his contentious comments about Harris, after also being asked if he felt it appropriate to refer to her as a 'DEI hire' as several Republicans already have.

Among other things, he appeared to falsely claim Harris did not lean into her black identity until it became beneficial to do so.

'She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,' Trump said. 

'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?

'Someone should look into that,' he concluded, to a combination of laughs and jeers - the latter outweighing the former.

'I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t.'

Scott pointed out that Harris has always identified as Black, before asking if agreed with his contemporaries that Harris was a 'DEI hire.' 

Seemingly feigning confusion, the conservative countered, 'I really don’t know - could be', before being met with a chorus of boos.

Later on, after the interview's conclusion, Trump further claimed on Truth Social: 'Crazy Kamala is saying she’s Indian, not Black. 

'This is a big deal,' he continued. 'Stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity!'

Harris went on to issue her own statement in response to the interview - one similar to the small section of her Houston speech.

'The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power,' she wrote.

'Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency – while he failed black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in. 

She added how Trump, with his comments to the press and on social media, 'has already proven he cannot unite America.

'[S]o he attempts to divide us,' she said.

'Today’s tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign. 

'It’s also exactly what the American people will see from across the debate stage as Vice President Harris offers a vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans,' she added, issuing yet another challenge to the GOP candidate. 

'All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on September 10.'

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, a black woman, added that Trump's comment were 'insulting.' and that as vice president, Harris deserves 'respect.'

'No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify,' Jean-Pierre said.  

Shaking her head as NBC's Peter Alexander read aloud Trump's words, she added 'What you just read out to me, is repulsive.

'It's insulting for anybody - it doesn't matter if it's a foreign leader or former president - it is insulting.

'She is the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. We have to put some respect on her name.' 

Trump, meanwhile, told Scott earlier in the day:  'I came here in good spirit. I love the black population of this country

Before leaving, he offered some memorable parting words.

'I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln.'

As for Harris, she promised in her speech to reverse the recent nixing of Roe v. Wade with a new law, while daring a hesitant to debate Trump yet again, 'Bring it on.' 

She said she will be at ABC’s September 10 debate - to which Trump and President Joe Biden had both already agreed - regardless of Trump’s attendance.