During a campaign rally in Arizona on Wednesday nightjiliplus, Senator JD Vance of Ohio called Vice President Kamala Harris a “phony” who “grew up in Canada,” hours after former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, questioned her identity as a Black woman.
Mr. Vance, Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential pick, did not directly refer to her race, but echoed the underlying attacks from Mr. Trump that Ms. Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, has changed her identity for personal gain. Mr. Vance mocked her for living in Canada during her teenage years, and he accused her of changing her accent while campaigning last week.
“Earlier this week, look up the clip, she went down to Georgia and started talking with a fake Southern accent,” Vance said in Glendale, near Phoenix. “What the hell is that all about? Kamala Harris grew up in Canada. They don’t talk like that in Vancouver or Quebec or wherever she came from, doesn’t matter.”
Mr. Trump was asked during a Q. and A. on Wednesday at the annual National Association of Black Journalists convention, being held in Chicago, about language used by his supporters and Republicans that Ms. Harris was a “D.E.I. hire,” referring to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she became a Black person,” he said of Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian American, whose father is Jamaican American and who has always identified as a Black woman.
Mr. Vance, who once lived in San Francisco and worked for the venture capitalist Peter Thiel, a conservative megadonor, also attacked Ms. Harris as a “dangerous San Francisco liberal” and a failed “border czar.” He also repeated unfounded claims of undocumented migrants’ “bankrupting” Medicare and other government services, remarks that drew resounding cheers among the audience in Arizona, a border state.
Republican attacks against Ms. Harris as a “border czar” refer to a position she was never officially given but alludes to her being deputized by President Biden to address the root issues behind migration from Central America. Ms. Harris was not charged with overseeing border securityjiliplus, but Mr. Vance has repeatedly accused the vice president of “allowing” migrants to murder Americans and of “inviting” drug cartels to deal fentanyl to children in playgrounds.