The question he humored at the time was whether the separate term “African American” was an accurate descriptor given neither of Harris’ parents or other descendants grew up in the United States.Īs DiversityInc’s Keka Araujo explained when Lemon’s and Ryan’s exchange first aired, there is a movement among some U.S.-born black people to distinguish themselves from others as “American descendants of slavery” (ADOS).

In the exchange, Lemon notably rejected any attempt to claim Harris “isn’t black enough” or hadn’t had experience as a black American. Several of Harris’ primary opponents came to her defense, arguing that any attempt to litigate the legitimacy of her racial experience was comparable to the “Birtherism” myths that plagued President Barack Obama, which President Donald Trump helped reinforce. He has since tried to argue that he was simply unaware that Harris was half Indian. The president’s son later deleted the tweet. quoted the tweet, adding above it, “Is this true? Wow.” The younger Trump retweeted a post from Ali Alexander, a conservative commentator, who claimed that Harris was “*not* an American Black” because “she is half Indian and half Jamaican.” tweet to which Carlson was referring was first posted by the president’s son last week. retweeted that observation, and for that, CNN denounced him as a terrifying racist.”Ī new Quinnipiac University poll shows Harris has in fact nearly caught up to front-runner and former Vice President Joe Biden following the first round of primary debates last month, making significant gains with black voters Biden lost 17% support from black Democratic voters, down to 31%, and Harris gained 16% support from black voters, up to 27%. One of them recently tweeted that Harris’ life story doesn’t bear much resemblance to that of most African Americans.

“In fact, many black voters appear skeptical of Kamala Harris. “Kamala Harris’ base ? Young, well-educated white liberals, affluent white voters,” Carlson said. The Fox News host then turned his attention to Harris’ ethnic background. The concern was valid, Carlson contended, because CNN host Don Lemon had made the same point months ago.Ĭarlson opened the discussion by attacking the Democratic presidential candidates for discussing “all race, all the time,” claiming that Americans don’t want that and would prefer to hear about “jobs and security and fairness.” (Carlson made the claim about one minute into an eight-minute segment dedicated to Harris’ race.) Kamala Harris (D-CA), a birtherism-style parsing of the California lawmaker and 2020 candidate’s ethnic background. Fox News host Tucker Carlson argued Tuesday night that there was nothing racist about Donald Trump Jr.’s recent tweet about Sen.

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