Biden camp slams Trumps for 'abhorrent' birther lies about Kamala Harris
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'Trump has has sought to fuel racism and tear our nation apart,' a statement from Biden read
US President Donald Trump's competitor Joe Biden has lashed out at Trump for spreading "abhorrent" lies about Biden's choice of Vice President Kamala Harris and her eligibility to become a Vice President.
Hours after Biden names Harris to be his running mate for the US Presidential elections, scheduled for November 2020, Harris faced criticism from Donald Trump — some of which can be termed as racist.
"I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements," Trump said, after an article was published by a law professor questioning Harris' parents immigration at the time of her birth — Harris' mother is Indian and father is Jamaican.
"I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements. And, by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that's right," Trump said.
"I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president," he said.
"But that's a very serious, you're saying that, they're saying that she doesn't qualify because she wasn't born in this country."
The comments were not left unanswered by the Biden campaign. Biden spokesman Andrew Bates issued a statement on behalf of Joe Biden that said Trump "has sought to fuel racism and tear our nation apart." The statement called this move and Trump's statements to be a part of the "grotesque, racist birther movement" led by Trump.
"So it's unsurprising, but no less abhorrent, that as Trump makes a fool of himself straining to distract the American people from the horrific toll of his failed coronavirus response that his campaign and their allies would resort to wretched, demonstrably false lies in their pathetic desperation."
Polls show Trump trailing Biden in the November election.