Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) attacked Kamala Harris’ womanhood while she declined to condemn Donald Trump’s racist attacks toward the vice president in a chaotic appearance on a CNN panel that went off-the-rails Thursday.
Mace repeatedly mispronounced Harris’ name and declared that she would say her name “anyway that I want to” before Michael Eric Dyson, a professor in African American studies at Vanderbilt University, described her remarks as “disgusting.”
“You know what, you know what’s disgusting to women is her disrespect of women,” Mace said. “She doesn’t know what a woman is. And 25 years ago —.”
“White women don’t have the ability to tell Black women who paid the price of blood to make this country what it is to tell them they’re not real women,” Dyson said.
Mace’s ridiculous claim arrived after Dyson said the congresswoman’s “anyway that I want to” remarks stemmed from “the history and legacy of white disregard for the humanity of Black people.”
“Oh, so now you’re calling me racist?” Mace said.
“I didn’t say —,” Dyson replied before the two sparred on the CNN panel.
Mace doubled down on her mispronunciation of Harris’ name. Sociolinguistics professor Nicole Holliday told HuffPost last month that right-wingers are botching the vice president’s name “on purpose,” noting that it could be taken as a way to show that “you’re not really for her” politically.
Mace, who was later asked by CNN’s Abby Phillip whether Trump should stop suggesting that Harris is “not actually Black” when he questioned her racial identity last month, squirmed as she dodged the “yes or no” question.
“Well, I mean, I, I, I didn’t hear him say it, I didn’t hear what he said about her race, I’m not gonna weigh in on her race,” said Mace, who weighed in on other aspects of Harris’ identity earlier on the panel.
She later added, “Well, she’s of mixed race. She’s of mixed race.”
Phillip later said that it doesn’t “take that much courage” to say Trump’s comments were “out of bounds.”
Democratic strategist Keith Boykin then pressed Mace to “just say yes” before saying that she was in a “cult” with her leader being the former president.
“The fact that you talk to women this way is ridiculous,” Mace said.
“You just talked about a Black woman that way,” replied Boykin as Phillip attempted to wrap up the program.
“In what way? She doesn’t know what a woman is,” said Mace as she doubled down on her insult.
