Senator Warnock Slams Trump For Attack On Harris’ Racial Identity: ‘People With No Vision Traffic In Division’
Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) warned that voters should be “wary” of politicians like former President Donald Trump who have “no agenda” and instead are “focused on dividing” Americans.
Warnock appeared on CNN’s Laura Coates Live late Wednesday to discuss the former president’s questioning of Harris’ racial identity on two occasions on earlier that day, at a National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) event and at a rally in Texas.
Speaking at the NABJ, Trump said of Harris: “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black.”
Host Laura Coates asked the senator for his reaction to Trump’s remarks.
Look as disappointing as it is to hear this if it’s anything, it’s certainly not surprising. This is who Donald Trump is. And he reminds us time and time again the only thing he knows is the politics of division and hatred and this is what we’re confronted with again, and he doesn’t even recognize the sad irony of his remark. In a real sense Kamala Harris’s story is an iteration of the American story the diversity that is among us and often within us and that is the American story out of many one, he put this on them and she, she carries that literally in her veins and in that sense, he didn’t know who we are and if you don’t know when she can’t represent us, you certainly can’t lead us. There are many people who watched that and thought, is he fixated on, quote unquote, what she is as opposed to what she stands for as an approach for his campaign?
Coates interjected to add: “It struck me as an odd departure from a policy-focused opportunity that he could have had in front of a room full of notable journalists.”
Warnock agreed and continued to reflect on Trump’s record in interrogating former President Barack Obama’s racial identity and the dangers of politicians whose modus operandi is “division.”
Well, the man has no agenda, he has no vision. And so people who have no vision, traffic in division. They don’t know how to lead us. And so they’re focused on dividing us.
We should not forget how Donald Trump entered into the world of politics in the first place. Remember? It was literally challenging the birth certificate of Barack Obama. He literally rode in on division even before he announced his candidacy. And then he came down that escalator and later on as he announced that he was running for the presidency… and he spent all of his time trying to convince each of us to be afraid of other people who are neighbors – to be afraid of our neighbors. And we should always be afraid of politicians would tell us to be afraid of our neighbors. We should be wary of those politicians at the debate saying that these immigrants are coming across the border taking black jobs…
So whether it’s trying to separate brown people from black people trying to somehow lift up part of Kamala Harris’s identity over against the other part, as if she has to choose, as if we have to choose between who we embrace. I mean, it’s a very narrow bigoted short-sighted vision. It’s who he is and I think the more we are reminded of it, the more we know what’s at stake – the very soul of our country.
Watch above on CNN.
