George Stephanopoulos repeatedly presses Rep. Byron Donalds on VP Harris’ racial identity in heated exchange

ABC host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., in a debate around Vice President Harris’ racial identity on Sunday. 

“Why is former President Trump questioning the vice president’s racial identity?” Stephanopoulos asked Donalds after Trump’s comments on Harris’ racial identity during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). 

Harris was born in 1964 to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother and spent much of her formative years in Berkeley, California.

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

“It doesn’t really matter,” Donalds continued, saying that he believed voters care more about “inflation,” illegal immigration and the fentanyl crisis. 

“You just repeated the slur again,” Stephanopoulos told Donalds. “If it doesn’t matter, why are you always questioning her identity? She has always identified as a Black woman. She is biracial.” 

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“Why are you questioning that?” Stephanopoulos said. 

Donalds responded that while Trump also mentioned Harris’ racial identity for a short time on stage during a campaign rally in Atlanta, he spent the majority of his time on the vice president’s record. 

“She was the most liberal senator in the United States Senate,” he said. “That is a fact.” 

Stephanopoulos also responded to Donalds’ claims that AP News initially reported that Harris was Indian when she became a senator. 

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

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.