Kamala Harris calls Trump a racist

“When you talk about him calling African countries s-hole countries. When you talk about him referring to immigrants as rapists and murderers, I don’t think you can reach any other conclusion,” Harris, who is black, told The Root in an interview published Tuesday.

Harris was referencing Trump reportedly calling Haiti and African nations “shithole countries” during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in January 2018. Trump has denied making the remark that drew condemnation from around the world.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump claimed Mexico was not “sending their best.” Instead, he said, “they’re sending people that have lots of problems. … They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

In August 2017, Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville that stemmed from a white supremacist rally in the Virginia city, adding that there were “some very fine people on both sides.”

“So you definitely would agree that he’s a racist?” The Root’s Terrell Jermaine Starr asked Harris.

“I do, yes. Yes,” she said.

Harris joins another 2020 candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in publicly calling Trump racist. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who is weighing whether to run for the White House, has also referred to the president as racist.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who is black, has not gone as far as his three Senate colleagues.

“I don’t know the heart of anybody,” the 2020 candidate said earlier this month. “I’ll leave that to the Lord.”