2020 Democratic candidates defend Kamala Harris against Donald Trump Jr., birtherism – By Kate Feldman (New York Daily News) / June 30 2019
Like father, like son.
Donald Trump Jr. took up his dad’s mantle and reignited familiar birtherism attacks, this time against Kamala Harris.
“I’m so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It’s disgusting. Now using it for debate time at #DemDebate2? These are my people not her people. Freaking disgusting,” tweeted an account under the name Ali Alexander Thursday night, after the California senator clashed with former Vice President Joe Biden during the second Democratic debate in Miami.
“Is this true? Wow,” Trump Jr. wrote in a quote tweet before deleting the post; his spokesman told the New York Times that he was “simply…asking if it was true” and that “folks were misconstruing the intent.”
The attack on Harris, who was born in Oakland to a Jamaican father and Indian mother, called back to President Trump’s own attacks on former President Obama, years spent questioning whether the politician was, in fact, born in Hawaii.
“The same forces of hatred rooted in ‘birtherism’ that questioned @BarackObama’s American citizenship, and even his racial identity, are now being used against Senator @KamalaHarris,” Biden tweeted Saturday night. “It’s disgusting and we have to call it out when we see it. Racism has no place in America.”
“The attacks against @KamalaHarris are racist and ugly,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted earlier in the day. “We all have an obligation to speak out and say so. And it’s within the power and obligation of tech companies to stop these vile lies dead in their tracks.”
“The presidential competitive field is stronger because Kamala Harris has been powerfully voicing her Black American experience. Her first-generation story embodies the American dream,” South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg tweeted. “It’s long past time to end these racist, birther-style attacks.”
“It’s disgusting. It has no place in our politics. This is the game that these folks play. They put something out there. You notice what he did. He tweeted it out and then he deleted it like a coward, so he can say, ‘Oh, that was a mistake,'” former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But he knows what he’s doing. He’s giving voice to these racist utterances about Senator Harris. We need to dispel them immediately and condemn them and then not give them any more life, because they’re disgusting.”
“Donald Trump Jr is a racist too. Shocker,” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted.
“This is the same type of racist attack his father used to attack Barack Obama,” Lily Adams, the campaign communications director, told CNN. “It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.”
Harris stepped out from the crowded Democratic field Thursday night when she questioned Biden’s record on civil rights, particularly his stance on mandatory busing in the 1970s.
“Vice President Biden, I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you, when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But I also believe — and it’s personal — it was actually hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country,” she said during the debate.
“That little girl was me. So I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly.”
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris squared off against former Vice President Joe Biden at Thursday night’s debate. (Wilfredo Lee / AP)
