Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told former President Trump on Sunday to lay off attacks against Vice President Harris about her race and heritage after Trump questioned her race in attacks that mimicked “birtherism” conspiracies.
Trump said in an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on Wednesday that Harris “happened to turn Black,” implying that she has lied about her race for political advantage. The remarks were denounced as racist by people on both sides of the aisle.
Graham said in a “Fox News Sunday” interview with Jacqui Heinrich that Trump should instead focus on policy, not identity.
“So here’s what I would say to President Trump. The problem I have with Kamala Harris is not her heritage; it is her judgment,” he said. “Every day we’re talking about her heritage and not her terrible, dangerous liberal record throughout her entire political life is a good day for her and a bad day for us. So I would encourage President Trump to prosecute the case against Kamala Harris’s bad judgment.”
Trump also shared a copy of Harris’s birth certificate on Truth Social, appearing to mimic his attacks on former President Obama’s heritage and racist “birtherism” conspiracies.
The Harris campaign strongly denounced the attacks, and political analysts have predicted that the comments could hurt Trump’s appeal among Black voters.
“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 and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said in a statement last week.
Top Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have encouraged members of the party to tone down attacks on Harris’s race after multiple members called her a “DEI hire,” comments that were denounced as racist.