Donald Trump is under fire for a “clearly racist” interview where he claimed Kamala Harris “only recently turned black”.
On Wednesday Trump said Ms Harris, whose mother was Indian American and father is black, was “Indian all the way” up until recently.
“All of a sudden she made a turn and she became a black person,” he said during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Chicago.
Leading Democrats hit out at Trump following the comments, with Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, calling his appearance a “meltdown” that showed he was unfit for office.
Mark Kelly, a senator from Arizona and one of the favourites to become Ms Harris’s running mate, said the remarks were “overtly racist”.
Another potential pick for vice-president, JB Pritzker, said Trump’s comments showed the “racism coming through him”.
Ms Harris did not directly address the remarks on Wednesday but said that Trump had put on the “same old show” of “divisiveness and disrespect”.
“The American people deserve better,” Ms Harris said at a convention of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of America’s most prominent black sororities.
“The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts.”