Trump Somehow Makes His Comments on Harris’s Race Even Worse

Donald Trump’s take on Kamala Harris’s racial identity somehow managed to get even worse.

During Tuesday night’s debate, the former president was probed about his controversial statements on Harris’s racial identity, including that the biracial Democrat had “turned Black.”

“I want to ask a bigger picture question tonight. Why do you think that it’s appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent?” prompted ABC’s David Muir.

“I don’t. And I don’t care,” Trump said. “I don’t care what she is. I don’t care.”

“You make a big deal out of something, I couldn’t care less. Whatever she wants to be is OK with me,” he continued. “All I can say is that I read where she was not Black—that she put out, I’ll say that. And then I read that she was Black. And that’s OK. Either one is OK with me. That’s up to her.”

Trump’s outrageous claim first sprang up at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in early August, when the 78-year-old white candidate tried and failed to curry favor with the crowd by trash-talking Harris’s racial identity.

“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,” Trump said at the convention, seemingly unable to grasp how a biracial person (multiracial people now make up more than 10 percent of the U.S. population, according to the 2020 census) could have two parents from different cultures but still manage to appreciate both.

Speaking on his foreign policy prowess during Tuesday’s debate, Donald Trump made sure to brag about his endorsement from a dictator.

“I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you, and they say you’re a disgrace,” said Kamala Harris, telling Trump that his debate performance proves he does not have the “temperament” to lead the country.

In response, Donald Trump flaunted his relationship with authoritarian Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán.

“Viktor Orbán, one of the most respected men—they call him a ‘strongman’—he’s a tough person, smart,” Trump started off, then stating that Orbán told American leaders, “You need Trump back as president.”

Boasting about the support of a prime minister who has decried “mixed race nations,” called for “a Europe of nation states,” and helped demolish democratic guardrails in Hungary is certainly a choice.

“China was afraid of him, North Korea was afraid of him … Russia was afraid of him,” said Trump, speaking in the third person, trying to show his own strongman tendencies.

“These dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again,” Kamala Harris responded later in the debate. “You adore strongmen instead of caring about democracy.”

Trump smiled and nodded.

Donald Trump gave a weak answer when asked how he would end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the presidential debate Tuesday night.

Trump took off on a winding answer, which seemed to attack President Joe Biden for not speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin at all.

“I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other, I’ll get ’em together,” Trump said at one point.

When ABC’s moderator David Muir asked Trump to clarify whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war, Trump responded, “I want the war to stop.”

Muir then pushed Trump to say whether he believed it was in America’s best interest for Ukraine to win, he again refused to answer the question.

“I think it’s in the U.S.’s best interest to get this war finished and f—just get it done!” Trump said.

Donald Trump, when asked point-blank during Tuesday night’s presidential debate whether he had any regrets for his actions on January 6, 2021, could not name a single one.

ABC News moderator David Muir noted in his question that Trump waited more than two hours on January 6 before delivering a video message telling rioters at the Capitol building to go home.

“Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?” Muir asked.

Trump’s response was defiant, claiming that during his message, he told demonstrators supporting him to act “peacefully and patriotically.”

Trump also claimed that “nobody on the other side was killed. Ashli Babbitt was shot by an out of control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. It’s a disgrace.” (He apparently forgot the Capitol police officers who died.)

Muir then asked the question again, and Trump again denied any responsibility.

“I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech. I showed up for a speech, I said, I think it’s going to be big,” Trump replied.

Kamala Harris did not mince words in her response, noting that Trump was indicted and impeached for his actions on January 6.

Trump’s thoughts on January 6 are disturbing, as he seems to be justifying the violent mob that sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election on his behalf. Invoking Ashli Babbitt is part of a years-long effort by conservatives to obscure their own responsibility for the Capitol insurrection. If Trump loses this November, his answer at Tuesday night’s debate could indicate that he’d be willing to incite another violent mob to overturn the results in his favor.

Donald Trump is trying to desperately backpedal his admission that he lost the 2020 presidential election, arguing that the game-changing statement amounted to simple sarcasm.

Last week, Trump finally admitted that he lost during an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast, where he shared that he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden “by a whisker.” The announcement sent some of his base—including January 6 rioters—into a frenzy. Some of them, including white supremacist Nick Fuentes, questioned why Trump allowed his supporters to rush headlong into insurmountable legal troubles under the cover of a lie.

“No. I don’t acknowledge that at all. I said that sarcastically,” Trump said flippantly during Tuesday night’s debate when questioned directly about the eyebrow-raising language. “Look, there’s so much proof. All you have to do is look at it, and they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval.”

Regardless of Trump’s sudden flip-flop, Trump’s words could still hold water in his federal election interference case, with legal experts believing that the admission could be used against him.