Donald Trump labeled Kamala Harris ‘a bum’ and joked about mispronouncing her name at a speech in Florida Friday night.
Trump is among many Republicans who have deliberately mispronounced Vice President Kamala Harris’s name, causing ire among some liberals.
The former president made fun of the idea at an event held in West Palm Beach for Turning Point.
He began discussing the vice president, who he declared ‘worse than Joe Biden and in a true sense much more liberal’ before noting he’d pronounced her name correctly.
‘And by the way, there are numerous ways of saying her name, they were explaining to me, you can say Kamala, you can say Kamala, I said, don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter what I say. I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it,’ Trump said.
Donald Trump labeled Kamala Harris ‘a bum’ and joked about mispronouncing her name at a speech in Florida Friday night
Trump overall was scathing about Harris and seemingly in shock over liberals sudden turn in her favor, given her record.
‘She was a bum 3 weeks ago, she was a bum. A failed VP, in a failed administration, with millions of people crossing and she was the Border Czar.’
He also criticized her for skipping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress and said she didn’t like Jewish people.
‘She refused to attend the speech. Because that’s her original thought, that’s where she comes from. She doesn’t like Jewish people, she doesn’t like Israel.’
Vice President Harris’ husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, is Jewish, while Harris held a one-on-one meeting with Netanyahu on Friday. Harris is also stepmother to Emhoff’s two children with his first wife, who are also Jewish.
Harris became the presumptive nominee for president earlier this week when Joe Biden announced he would no longer seek a second term.
The correct pronunciation of Harris’ name has been a high profile discussion ever since she was named Joe Biden‘s running mate in 2020.
Rather than the correct ‘KA’-ma-la,’ Trump sometimes says, ‘Ka-MAH-la.’
The discourse around Harris’ name is well documented, with the Washington Post writing an article on all the people who got it wrong during the RNC last week
Trump overall was scathing about Harris and seemingly in shock over liberals sudden turn in her favor, given her record
Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, is the first woman to become vice president and the third non-white person as either president or vice president, following Obama and Charles Curtis, Herbert Hoover’s vice president who had Native American ancestry.
The discourse around Harris’ name is well documented, with the Washington Post writing an article on all the people who got it wrong during the RNC last week.
They joined the likes of Tucker Carlson, who lost his temper after being challenged on his pronunciation in 2020.
Trump has also historically fumbled the name or made a show of over pronouncing it in a seemingly mocking way.
Critics believe the mispronunciation is a deliberate tactic to draw attention to Harris’ heritage as a black and Indian woman.
Harris has herself addressed the situation, releasing a video in 2016 which used children to help educate people.
‘People pronounce my name many different ways. Let #KidsForKamala show you how it’s done,’ she said.
And in a 2019 memoir, Harris wrote: ‘[M]y name is pronounced ‘comma-la,’ like the punctuation mark. It means ‘lotus flower,’ which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture.’
However, even Biden has previously struggled, butchering his Vice President’s name during a 2019 speech recognizing the Golden State Warriors for the NBA Championship win.
