Republican Congressman Byron Donalds who is a close ally of Donald Trump dismissed the former president's attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris' racial identity on Sunday calling it a 'side issue' even as Trump has dug in.
The prominent Florida lawmaker appeared on ABC News 'This Week' with anchor George Stephanopoulos in a testy interview where he was asked about Trump's recent remarks at the National Association of Black Journalists.
Trump went after Harris during the event last week claiming she only recently started identifying as black. He said she 'happened to turn black.'
'Why is President Trump questioning the vice president's racial identity?' Stephanopoulos asked Donalds.
'This is really a phony controversy. I don't really care. Most people don't,' Donalds responded. 'But if we're going to be accurate, when Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was [Associated Press] that said she was the first Indian American United States Senator.'
Donalds falsely claimed only when she campaigned nationally did they shift to talk about her father's heritage and her black identity.
When Harris was the first elected to the Senate, multiple news articles noted the milestone in headlines that she was the first Indian American ever elected to the Senate, but she was also identified as black.
'You just repeated the slur again. If it doesn't matter why do you all keep questioning her identity?' Stephanopoulos pushed back. 'She is biracial. She has a Jamaican father and an Indian mother. She's always identified as both. Why are you questioning that?'
'Well, George, first of all, this is something that's actually a conversation throughout social media right now. There were a lot of people who are trying to figure this out,' Donalds responded. 'But again, that's a side issue, not the main issue.'
Stephanopoulos cut him off to point out that he was questioning her racial identity again in less than two minutes as the two then spoke over each other.
'Why do you insist on questioning her racial identity?' he shot back. 'I want you to answer my question.'
'George, now that you're done yelling at me, let me answer. He talked about it on stage yesterday in Atlanta for what, two minutes? He spent more than 35, 40 minutes going after her record talking about how radical of a senator that she was,' Donalds said.
Trump first questioned Harris identity at the NABJ event in Chicago last Wednesday where he said 'she was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a black person. I think somebody should look into that.'
Some Republicans have questioned the ex-president continuing that line of attack and urged the campaign to shift more toward talking about issues.
But Trump doubled-down at his rally Wednesday night in Harrisburg, PA before bringing it up again on Saturday night in Atlanta.
'So questioning somebody's racial identity if only for a couple of minutes is ok?' Stephanopoulos asked Donalds.
'George I'm going to tell you again, he brought it up. AP is the one that wrote the headline when she first came into the United States Senate. It didn't talk about her being black. It talked about her being the first Indian American Senator,' Donalds said.
In 2016 when Harris was elected to the Senate, AP reported, 'Harris will enter the chamber as the first Indian woman elected to a Senate seat and the second black woman, following Carol Moseley Braun, who served a single term after being elected in 1992.'
Stephanopoulos pointed out that Donalds in his responses questioned Harris' identity three times, stating: 'You simply can't say that it's wrong.'
Donalds falsely insisted again it was the AP who denied her racial identity as black, claiming 'those are the facts.' He insisted he would prefer to talk about the future of the country.
