Karine Jean-Pierre slams Trump for Harris race comments: ‘Repulsive’ and ‘insulting’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre provided an impassioned response to former President Donald Trump‘s claim that Vice President Kamala Harris has presented as more Indian than black to him in the past.

“What you just read out to me is repulsive, it’s insulting, and, you know, no one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify. That is no one’s right. It is someone’s own decisions,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday when it was relayed to her what Trump said. “I’ll add this. Only she can speak to her experience. Only she can speak to what it’s like. She’s the only person that can do that.”

Jean-Pierre added that Harris is vice president and, “We have to put some respect on her name.”

Jean-Pierre, who is of black-Haitian descent, defended Harris from Trump’s comments, which were made during his appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention and Career Fair in Chicago. Trump was taking questions from ABC’s Rachel Scott, Semafor‘s Kadia Goba, and Fox News’s Harris Faulkner as the briefing was unfolding. 

“She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went, she became a black person,” Trump said. “I think somebody should look into that.”

Trump is trying to undercut Democratic support, particularly among black men, this election cycle, but Harris appears to be more popular with the demographic compared to President Joe Biden, at least according to early polling.

Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, who raised her as a single mother after her parents separated when she was 7 years old.