‘Is she Black or Indian?’ - Trump under fire after questioning Harris’ identity

Donald Trump isn't used to this: no "God Bless the USA" soundtrack and no cheering fans. "I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room, sir," at the National Association of Black Journalists. Trump was challenged on his record and his words right from the get-go.

"You have told four congresswomen of color, who were American citizens, to go back to where they came from. Why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that?"

"Well, first of all, I don't think I've ever been asked the question in such a horrible manner. First question, I think it's disgraceful that I came here in good spirit."

Trump has been out of the headlines since Kamala Harris entered the race. The way he likes to regain the spotlight is to appeal to his base with baseless claims about his new rival.

"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."

That statement echoes a dark history of a white man defining someone's race and using it to determine their place in America.

"My mother was very well aware that she was raising two black girls to be two black women." Harris's mother was from India, her father from Jamaica. She's always identified as black while acknowledging her Indian heritage. But Trump's rhetoric is not about facts.

"I thought he was probably born in this country, and now I really have a much bigger doubt than I did before."

He questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States, another political foe of Trump's whose background was ripe for his dog-whistle country.

"He may not have been born in this country."

And so, for the vice president, this was divisive deja vu, and it was the same old show.

"The divisiveness and the disrespect, and let me just say, the American people deserve better. The American people deserve better."

Outside the Museum of African American History, a chronicler of past prejudices, people here were reminded that some still exist.

"You just never know what's going to happen when Donald Trump opens his mouth. He never has anything good to say."

"He's going to do the same thing he did with Obama. He's going to go down that same path every time. He doesn't have policy, he doesn't have good ideas, he just has insults. And he's afraid of strong African-American women."

"Thank you."

It's only the second week of this new presidential matchup, and already the rhetoric is nasty. 2024 is a test for this nation as it asks itself whether it's ready to elect a black female president.

One of Donald Trump's nephews has described his uncle as "atomic crazy" in a book about his family. Fred C. Trump III also says the former president used racial slurs and told him disabled people, like his son, should be left to die. He's the son of Donald Trump's older brother, Fred Trump Jr., who died in 1981, and the brother of Mary Trump. She wrote her own memoir which said Donald Trump and his siblings effectively disinherited her and her brother. I spoke to Fred Trump earlier and began by asking him what role Donald Trump had played in his life.

"There were anecdotes in the book. I remember very clearly sitting on his lap, watching an episode of The Twilight Zone. He's the first person that put a golf club in my hand, and we share a passion for golf. When my father passed away, Donald was named my trustee."

"What did that mean?"

"I take it to mean that he is there to protect me and my family. And what it did was give him control over your finances. My son, William, again, was born a day after my grandfather was buried. He spent the first seven weeks of his life, William did, in neonatal intensive care units in three different hospitals. When William finally came home after seven weeks in neonatal intensive care units, I received a letter from Donald's attorney basically saying, 'You were taken out of your grandfather's will,' and that's that. I subsequently learned that it was Donald who hatched this scheme to remove Mary and me from our rightful inheritance."

"Now, as you know, he's in the news today because of the way he handled a panel session with some black journalists yesterday. What do you think that tells us about his attitude towards race?"

"I know he has to live up to his amped-up base, but this one just didn't make sense as a politician. It was frankly a no-brainer. If I had, and I never would have, said anything like that, I would have kind of got in my hand and taken those words back. He doubles down; he cannot admit doing something wrong."

"You've talked about how you've heard him use racist language. Can you just tell me about that?"

"I was at my grandparents' house, as I often was during the summer, and I heard Donald screaming. He was pissed, and I went down to where he was, in my grandparents' driveway, and he just used the N-word twice, very loudly. And that was bad enough for me."

"Do you think he's a racist?"

"I just think he espouses views that racist people could take for his own political gain. I mean, anybody lesser than him, or he deems lesser than him. Now, you can call it racist or not, or your viewers could, it's just an attitude that I don't believe in."

"You know, there is some pretty shocking stuff in your book about his attitude towards William and what he said to you."

"When Donald was inaugurated three months later, I was back down in Washington, and I brought a group of very special advocates on behalf of people with complex disabilities. It culminated in a meeting in the White House office. The meeting ended, I was called back in by Donald, sat down. He greets me with his familiar 'Hey, pal, how's it going?' and about a minute into it, he says, 'Those people, the expenses, those people should just die.'"

"Shocking is, there's got to be a more powerful word than shocking, but that's the only one I can come up with right now."

Donald Trump or his people have sort of denied the things that you've been saying in public recently, and his son, Eric, tweeted on X that you're cashing in, implying that you've taken money. What's your response to that?

"My response, and I won't respond personally to Eric, is I just ask your viewers to read the book or listen to it on audio to understand the truths behind the stories that they're denying."

"Do you still depend on them at all for anything, I mean for medical expenses for your son or anything like that?"

"The fund is slated to be depleted in a few months. Do I expect them to continue it? That's up to them. I would like to hope so. Can we bury the hatchet on this? Again, this is truthful stuff. I'm not out there to do anything politically for him. I believe in policy over politics; it's important to me, which is why I will be voting for and endorsing and campaigning for Kamala Harris. It's nothing personal."

"What do you think would happen to America if Donald Trump wins?"

"I think freedoms in this country and the Constitution that we supposedly hold dear—I know I do, and I know most everyone I know does—but the Republican Party and what it's morphed into doesn't seem to care about it anymore."

"And what are your personal feelings towards him? I mean, he's your uncle. Do you love him?"

"Love is a word that was rarely used in the Trump family. I love my wife and I love my kids. I have affection for Donald, but it was not a warm and cozy family. As I've said, I don't think I coined the phrase, but we put the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional.'"

"Fred Trump, thank you very much indeed."

"Kristen, thank you so much."

Well, the Trump campaign has previously responded to the memoir saying in a statement that stories of Trump using racist language are completely fabricated and adding, "It is appalling a lie so blatantly disgusting can be printed in media. Anyone who knows President Trump knows he would never use such language, and false stories like this have been thoroughly debunked."