CHICAGO—Former President Donald Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris over her race, baselessly suggesting his election rival only began identifying as a Black woman in recent years.

“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,” Trump said Wednesday at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention. “So I don’t know, is she Indian, or is she Black?”


He continued: “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 became a Black person. And I think somebody should look into that, too.”

Trump’s personal attacks on Harris further thrust race and gender into the center of the contentious 2024 presidential election—a direct reflection of Harris’s emergence as the expected Democratic nominee.

And the event signaled that Trump, who recently called for a divided nation to unite at the Republican National Convention, would continue to launch personal attacks on his political rivals, as well as take a hostile stance toward journalists. He doubled down on both after the NABJ panel.

Harris, 59 years old, is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. She was raised in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Berkeley, Calif., because, she said, her mother thought her daughters would one day be seen as Black women and wanted them to have strong role models around them. Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black institution in Washington, D.C., and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a Black sorority.

“I’m Black, and I’m proud of being Black,” Harris said in 2019. “I was born Black. I will die Black, and I’m not going to make excuses for anybody because they don’t understand.”

Speaking at a Black sorority event in Houston Wednesday night, Harris called Trump’s appearance at the NABJ meeting, “the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect.”

“The American people deserve better,” she said. “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us, they are an essential source of our strength.”

Trump’s comments came in real-time as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was holding the daily press briefing. “What he just said, what you just read out to me, is repulsive, is insulting,” Jean-Pierre said.

“No one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify,” added Jean-Pierre. “She is the vice president of the United States. We have to put some respect on her name, period.”

Michael Tyler, communications director for Harris’s campaign, said: “The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president.”

Rep. Byron Donalds (R., Fla.), one of a handful of Black Republicans in Congress, posted on X: “Today at the NABJ Convention, President Trump took the incoming fire from hostile reporters, held firm, and articulated his plan to Make America Great Again for ALL AMERICANS.”

Trump, last week in his first rally since President Biden dropped out of the race, had stepped up his attacks on Harris , calling her “a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country.”

The National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention is regularly attended by thousands of reporters, editors and media professionals. Trump took questions from a panel of three Black female journalists: Rachel Scott of ABC News, Harris Faulkner of Fox News and Kadia Goba of Semafor.

The tone of the Q&A was contentious from the start. Scott, the senior congressional reporter for ABC, started by asking Trump why Black voters should back him given his prior incendiary comments on race and gender, including falsely claiming former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and treating Black journalists with hostility.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump responded. “Are you with ABC? Because I think they are a fake news network, a terrible network.”

Trump repeatedly critiqued Scott throughout the panel, at times in various asides. “She was very rude,” Trump said, responding to a question from Goba.

At one point, Trump complained about not being able to hear Faulkner, sitting the furthest from him on the stage. In an aside to Scott, sitting closest to him, Trump said: “I can understand you perfectly.”

On his Truth Social media platform after the panel, Trump blasted ABC News and continued to attack Harris for her identity. “Stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity!”

Lynne Patton , a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said: “Today’s biased and rude treatment from certain hostile members of the media will backfire massively.”

Trump had seen increased support among Black voters, a core Democratic constituency, in public polling this year when Biden was in the race. In an attempt to continue to win over support, Trump will hold a rally Saturday in Atlanta, at the same venue where thousands gathered Tuesday for a Harris event . The crowd for Harris was predominantly Black.

“I love the Black population of this country, I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country,” Trump said at NABJ. He cited his administration’s work increasing funding for historically Black colleges and universities.

The event was billed as an hourlong discussion but lasted just over 30 minutes.

NABJ extended an invitation to Harris, organizers said. But because of scheduling conflicts, Harris offered to make a virtual appearance instead of attending in person, according to a person familiar with the matter. NABJ declined, this person said.

NABJ President Ken Lemon said Wednesday the organization had been in talks with Harris to sit for an in-person panel even before Biden dropped out of the race. The organization has a history of inviting politicians of both parties to the convention. Lemon later said NABJ and Harris’s team are in discussion for a Q&A session in September—either in person or virtually.

Harris appears to have made early progress in reviving the coalition of Black, Latino and young voters who helped elect Biden in 2020. A new Wall Street Journal poll conducted in late July showed those voters had greater support for her than they did for Biden in an earlier Journal survey taken after his halting debate performance on June 27.

Before Trump took the stage, the panel drew backlash from some NABJ members. Karen Attiah , a Washington Post columnist who was a co-chair of the Chicago convention, said on X she resigned her post for a variety of reasons and that she “was not involved or consulted with in any way with the decision to platform Trump in such a format.”

Lemon said: “While we acknowledge the concerns expressed by our members, we believe it is important for us to provide our members with the opportunity to hear directly from candidates and hold them accountable.”

Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com