Donalds: Attacks on Harris race a 'phony controversy'

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) downplayed criticism of former President Trump for his attacks on Vice President Harris’s race and heritage, which have themselves been denounced as racist.

Donalds told George Stephanopoulos in an ABC “This Week” interview on Sunday that the comments aren’t a big deal.

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.

“This is really a phony controversy,” Donalds said. “I don't really care. Most people don't.”

The congressman went on to blame The Associated Press for the attacks, falsely claiming the outlet’s coverage of Harris’s election as the first Indian-American senator backed up Trump’s remarks.

“If we're going to be accurate, when Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate it was AP that said she was the first Indian-American United States senator,” Donalds said. “It was actually played up a lot when she came into the Senate. Now she's running nationally, obviously, the campaign has shifted. They're talking much more about her father's heritage and her black identity. It doesn't really matter that the President mentioned it.”

Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed Donalds to say that denying Harris’s Black heritage was wrong, which he dodged. The interview later escalated into a heated bout over the topic, with both men talking over each other.

“The AP did not say that Kamala Harris is not black. She is biracial. She is Indian. She is black,” Stephanopoulos said. “You continue to repeat the slur. I don't understand why you and the president do it, but it's clear. You're not going to say that it's wrong, and you've now established that for our audience.”

Trump also shared a copy of Harris’ birth certificate on Truth Social last week, 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’ race after multiple members called her a “DEI hire,” comments which were denounced as racist.