‘Ridiculous!’ Chris Wallace Segment Explodes Over Trump Attack On Kamala Harris: ‘Just Shocked This Is Argument You’re Putting Forward!’

A CNN panel got heated on Saturday during a discussion about Donald Trump recently claiming Vice President Kamala Harris “turned” Black.

During an explosive q and a session at a National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, Trump joked that Harris “became Black,” accusing her of previously emphasizing her Indian heritage for political gain. Harris is biracial and the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica.

“I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said.

The comment was immediately condemned by the White House and others.

During a panel on The Chris Wallace Show on CNN, New York Times journalist and CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro accused Trump of being “out of touch” and not understand the concept of someone being biracial.

“Not only is it ridiculous, but he also seems to not understand the concept of being biracial and frankly it is the largest growing group among young people in this country. America understands what it means to be biracial. The fact that Donald Trump doesn’t seem to understand makes him look incredibly out of touch,” she said.

Manhattan Institute President Reihan Salam argued that the former president may be trying to appeal to a niche voter group within the Black community, knowing there is little chance he can match Harris’s support.

“I don’t think this is necessarily a good thing, but what I will say is that for a lot of Americans, particularly a lot of Black Americans, there is some sense of discomfort about the fact that when you look at high profile, high status Black Americans, many of them are multi-racial, first or second generation American, immigrants or kids of immigrants, or they are themselves intermarried,” Salam said.

He went on to reference the group American Descendants of Slavery, but Garcia-Navarro jumped back in, shocked at her fellow panelist.

“I’m just shocked that this is an argument that you are putting forward,” she said.

Salam stressed he was not promoting the views himself.

“No, this is something I’m talking about as an analyst to describe the fact that the Black community is not a monolith. There are a lot of complicated, conflicted feelings. More than twice as many Black Americans oppose intermarriage as White Americans,” he said.

“It is a completely ridiculous argument to be made in a country where you had the one drop rule where you were actually penalized legally in this country if you had a single drop of Black blood. To now say that this woman, who is clearly Black, is somehow suspicious and is wearing a mantle and assuming some kind of ridiculous identity,” Garcia-Navarro shot back.

Salam continued to argue it was a “bad” line of attack by Trump.

“I do not think that it was a good thing for Donald Trump to use this line of attack. I agree with Kara. Stick to policy, but it is —” he said before Garcia-Navarro jumped back in.

“This is not what Donald Trump was doing! You are trying to explain something — If you ask Donald Trump, what were you up to, he’s not going to be like, you know there’s this current in the African American community that talks about the descendants of slavery. Do you think that is what he was up to? He was going there in order to do what he always does which is to throw as much as he can against the wall and see what sticks,” she said.

Salam argued again Trump’s strategy could be appealing to a niche set of voters and stressed he was only highlighting those exact voters.

“I’m afraid part of what I’m trying to do is actually give some insight into the fact that public opinion is changing, it’s divided, and there’s a big conversation about this,” he said. “I don’t think this is the best angle to pursue, but I do think that when you’re talking about the Black community, he’s not looking to win 90% of the Black vote, he’s looking at what are interesting cleavages and divides within that population and this is one of them.”

Watch above via CNN.

This post has been corrected to note the episode aired on Saturday.