Trump keeps calling Harris ‘stupid,’ offending many voters
Originally published by Ashley Parker for the Washington Post
Speaking to a crowd in Erie, Pa., on the last Saturday in September, former president Donald Trump lambasted his Democratic opponent.
“Crooked Joe Biden became mentally impaired — sad — but Lyin’ Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way,” he said, mispronouncing the Democratic presidential nominee’s name as the crowd chuckled. “There’s something wrong with Kamala, and I just don’t know what it is, but there is definitely something missing.”
Ten minutes later, he offered an even blunter assessment, warning that the nation’s immigration system was being mismanaged by “stupid people like Kamala.”
“She’s a stupid person,” he said, before adding again, as if for emphasis: “Stupid person.”
Since Harris emerged on the top of the Democratic ticket in July, Trump has repeatedly attacked her intelligence — deriding her as “dumb,” “mentally unfit,” “slow,” “stupid” and an “extremely low IQ person,” among other similar pejoratives.
To some of the former president’s fiercest supporters, he is simply articulating aloud their view of her. But for many voters, as well as experts, Trump’s sneering dismissiveness of Harris’s intellect reeks of racism and sexism.
If elected, Harris — who is Black and Indian American — would make history as the first female president, as well as the first female president of color, and Trump’s repeated jabs at her intelligence go beyond mere insults.
The attacks are particularly striking given Harris’s deeply accomplished résumé: former San Francisco district attorney, former California attorney general, former U.S. senator and now vice president. She has a bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, and she was widely seen through polling and focus groups to have soundly bested him at their Sept. 10 debate.