GREENSBORO, N.C. — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump unleashed a series of personal attacks at Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her “lazy” — a word long used to demean Black people in racist terms — and repeatedly questioning her intelligence and stamina.
At an event Tuesday in Miami aimed at courting Latino voters, Trump said he said Harris was “lazy as hell” for not holding a campaign event. Trump’s comments ignored that Harris spent her day in meetings in Washington and recording interviews with Telemundo and NBC. He referred to the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket as “slow” and having a “low IQ.”
Later in the day during a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, he called Harris a “stupid person” and went on to ask: “Does she drink? Is she on drugs?”
Tuesday marked the first day in more than two weeks that Harris had no public events scheduled after a run of more than 14 consecutive days of travel to political events in pivotal states, including a three-state run on Monday, starting in Pennsylvania, continuing to Michigan and ending in Wisconsin.
Yet Trump signaled he will lean harder into disparaging Harris during the remaining two weeks before Election Day, despite the urging of allies who have repeatedly suggested he should steer clear of personal attacks including references to her race and gender.
He, however, implied that Harris, a onetime California attorney general and U.S. senator, became the Democratic nominee because of her race and gender. “She’s running because they want to be politically correct,” Trump said.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said the former president’s criticisms had “nothing to do with her race or gender.”
“It’s simply because she has no respect for the American people and takes voters for granted,” Cheung said in a statement Wednesday.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the “lazy” comment. However, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for Harris, noted that Trump canceled a Tuesday afternoon town hall with allies Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard before his evening rally in North Carolina.
The former president has questioned the work ethic of various opponents throughout his career. He accused President Joe Biden in 2020 of campaigning from his basement, even as Trump continued to hold large events during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2016 routinely called Democrat Hillary Clinton physically weak and low-energy. He also accused both of being under the influence of drugs.
Trump has also engaged in questioning people’s racial backgrounds — including Harris’ — and racial dog whistles and overtly racist rhetoric have been fixtures of Trump’s public life.
The federal government sued Trump for allegedly discriminating against Black apartment seekers in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Trump purchased a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty after five Black and Latino teenagers, known then as the Central Park Five, were accused of raping and beating a white woman jogger in New York City. The five said they confessed to the crimes under duress, later recanted, and pleaded not guilty in court. They were convicted after jury trials, but the convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.
Recently, the men, now known as the Exonerated Five, filed a lawsuit on Monday against Trump. They accused Trump of making “false and defamatory statements” against them in his debate with Harris last month in which Trump wrongly stated that the victim was killed and that the wrongly accused suspects had pleaded guilty.
Using the term “lazy” to describe Harris, who is Black and of South Asian descent, evokes tropes that paint Black Americans as lazy, unsophisticated, submissive or inept.
Such stereotypes have been pervasive throughout American history. According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the stereotypes had a purpose and “were used to help commodify black bodies and justify the business of slavery.”
“Yet laziness, as well as characteristics of submissiveness, backwardness, lewdness, treachery, and dishonesty, historically became stereotypes assigned to African Americans,” the institution found.
In several of his personal attacks on Harris, including the reference to drinking, Trump appeared to be referencing falsehoods or unsubstantiated claims spreading online in far-right circles. Trump has repeatedly amplified debunked or unproven claims, perhaps most notably when he claimed during his debate with Harris that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating dogs and cats. Officials in Springfield have said the claims are not true.
Trump has also associated with people who spread conspiracy theories, including right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer, who traveled with him to the presidential debate and several 9/11 memorial events. He declined at a press conference last month to denounce Loomer, saying she’s “been a supporter of mine.”
