Trump Ally Calling Kamala Harris ‘Colored’ Sparks Backlash

Right-wing media personality Sebastian Gorka, who briefly served in the Donald Trump administration, received backlash from social media users on Wednesday when he called Vice President Kamala Harris “colored.”

During a recent appearance on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight, Schmitt asked Gorka, who previously served as Trump’s deputy assistant for seven months in 2017, “Do these donors really think that Kamala Harris is going to do better in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania than Joe Biden would?”

Schmitt was referring to recent calls from some Democrats for President Joe Biden to drop his reelection campaign after his dismal debate performance against former President Donald Trump in Atlanta last month and let another Democrat, like Harris, run as the party’s nominee.

“Rob, you’re being logical. Stop it, alright,” Gorka jokingly said to Schmitt on Tuesday night. “She’s a DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] hire, right? She’s a woman! She’s colored. Therefore she’s gotta be good,” Gorka said sarcastically.

Newsweek reached out to Gorka via email and Harris’ press secretary via email for comment.

Harris is the first female vice president in American history. She is also the first Black and first Asian-American vice president. She served as a U.S. Senator from California from 2017 to 2021 and ran against Biden for president before becoming his running mate in 2020. Before her time in Congress, she served as California’s attorney general for six years and was the district attorney of San Francisco before that.

People on social media were outraged by Gorka’s comments about Harris, calling them “racist.”

Ed Krassenstein, a political commentator who gained notoriety by trolling Trump on social media, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Lunatic and apparently racist Sebastian Gorka just called Kamala Harris a ‘colored’ woman. Have some of these people just given up on trying to hide their racism?”

Keith Boykin, a political commenter and author who previously served as an aide in the Bill Clinton administration, posted: “Former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka says Democrats only support Vice President Kamala Harris because ‘she’s a DEI hire,’ ‘she’s a woman,’ and ‘she’s colored.’ From the racists who brought you an unqualified TV game show host and now a convicted felon.”

Trump, who rose to fame as the star of the reality show Apprentice before getting into politics, is now a convicted felon after being found guilty in late May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels alleges she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies. The former president has maintained his innocence, claiming the case was politically motivated against him. His legal team intends to appeal the verdict.

Victoria Brownworth, an investigative journalist, wrote: “Yikes. Last night on NEWSMAX Sebastian Gorka said of VP Kamala Harris ‘she’s colored, right?'”

“This is the most overtly racist thing I’ve ever seen on television. Gorka just called Kamala Harris a ‘DEI hire’ and said ‘she’s colored,'” another X user wrote.

As companies have attempted to become more inclusive in their hiring practices and other corporate initiatives, some conservatives have not only criticized these practices but made accusations toward people of color or other diverse workers that they didn’t earn their role but instead were only hired as a diversity token.