Kamala Harris has now been vice president for more than four years.
Washington:
The White House on Thursday described as “disgusting” the increasing sexist and racist attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, which have intensified after she became the Democratic party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
“I think it’s desperate. I think it’s disgusting and I think it’s a dog whistle. We can’t forget that she is the Vice President of the United States. She should get that respect. She has been doing this job with the president for almost four years,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference.
“She is a former senator and has been a critical partner in restarting the economy and ensuring we address the pandemic. And to hear that is, quite frankly, disgusting,” Jean-Pierre said when asked about the rise in racist and sexist attacks on Harris, who is of both Indian and African descent.
It rose to such a level that House Speaker Mike Johnson had to ask his Republican lawmakers to prevent such an attack.
“If you have the Speaker of the House of Representatives, obviously he’s a Republican, and this is something that all of you have reported, organize a rally to tell the Republican leaders to stop being racist, stop being misogynistic to be, to stop being sexist, I think. that says a lot that they should be told not to do that,” Jean-Pierre said.
According to Politico, “House Republican leaders told lawmakers to focus on criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris’ record, without reference to her race and gender, after caustic comments from some Republicans who attacked her based on identity.” At an election rally in North Carolina, former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had said Vice President Harris is “unfit to govern” and described her as a “radical left-wing lunatic”.
“For three and a half years, Lyin Kamala Harris has been the ultra-liberal driving force behind every Biden catastrophe. She is a radical leftist lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets the chance to take power. We won’t let that happen,” Trump said on Wednesday as he unleashed a barrage of attacks on her.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
