'Is she Indian or Black': Donald Trump questions Kamala Harris's racial identity

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time) questioned Vice President Kamala Harris's racial identity and falsely claimed that she had been downplaying her Black heritage.

Trump's response drew condemnation from Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, calling it "the same old show of divisiveness and disrespect", news agency Reuters reported.

Speaking to a panel of the Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago, Illinois, Trump said, "She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. 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? But you know what, I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went - she became a Black person," Trump remarked.

Harris, a Democrat, who launched her presidential run last month after US President Joe Biden bowed out, has long identified herself as both Black and Asian. She is the first Black and Asian-American person to serve as the Vice President.