美国副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯周二在费城举行的全国黑人记者协会(National Association of Black Journalists)小组会议上，强烈批评前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)及其竞选伙伴俄亥俄州参议员JD·万斯(JD Vance)对俄亥俄州斯普林菲尔德的海地移民进行的“有害”攻击，她在会上发表了对这场争议以及更大程度上对种族问题的最广泛评论，这是她在本周期回避的一个话题。
“这是一个奇耻大辱，”哈里斯在被问及特朗普和万斯传播未经证实的说法时说这座小城市的海地移民偷吃邻居的宠物。"我是说，我为这个社区心碎。"
斯普林菲尔德市的一名发言人告诉ABC新闻，这些说法是假的，并且“没有可靠的报告或具体的说法表明宠物受到移民社区个人的伤害或虐待。”
哈里斯周二的评论标志着她对斯普林菲尔德海地移民毫无根据的说法的最严厉的谴责。尽管被记者多次问到，哈里斯之前拒绝发表评论。
她称前总统关于斯普林菲尔德移民的评论是“令人疲惫的”和“有害的”
“我认为我们国家的大多数人，不管他们是什么种族，都开始看穿这种无稽之谈，并说，‘你知道吗，让我们翻过这一页，’”她说。“这令人筋疲力尽，有害无益，令人憎恶，而且植根于一些我们不应该容忍的古老的东西。”
副总统表示，特朗普关于斯普林菲尔德移民的言论已经让他失去了公众的信任。
“当你被授予这么大的麦克风时，随之而来的是一种深刻的责任，这是在这一时刻不应该失去的东西的延伸，公众信任的概念，然后理解公众信任的含义，”她说。“这意味着你被赋予了对自己用词方式负责的信任，更不用说对自己的行为负责了，尤其是当你已经成为并寻求再次成为美利坚合众国总统时。”
她呼吁特朗普的“仇恨言论”停止。
“我知道人们对俄亥俄州斯普林菲尔德社区发生的事情深感不安，这种情况必须停止，”哈里斯告诉委员会。“我们必须说，你不能站在美利坚合众国总统的印章后面，发表那种仇恨的言论，像往常一样，旨在分裂我们这个国家，旨在让人们相互指责。”
春田市的学校、政府大楼和当选官员的住宅遭到一连串的炸弹威胁，迫使人们疏散和关闭。哈里斯指出，斯普林菲尔德的一些孩子不得不撤离他们的学校，因为在他们的图片日有炸弹威胁。
“孩子。孩子。整个社区都陷入了恐惧，”她说。
这个小组是在一个明显的暗杀企图特朗普在他的西棕榈滩高尔夫俱乐部。白宫表示，哈里斯周二与前总统进行了“亲切”的通话。
“我检查了他是否还好，我告诉他我已经公开说过的话，‘在我们的国家没有政治暴力的空间，’”哈里斯谈到那次通话时说。“我参加这次选举，参加这次竞选，有很多原因，包括为我们的民主而战，在一个民主国家里，没有政治暴力的容身之地。我们可以也应该进行健康的辩论、讨论和分歧，但不要诉诸暴力来解决这些问题。”
当被问及她是否认为特勤局可以保护她和她的家人安全时，哈里斯说:“我相信。”
“但我的意思是，你可以回到俄亥俄州，不是每个人都有特勤局，我们国家现在有太多的人没有安全感。”
小组讨论还包括哈里斯自今年夏天发起总统竞选以来关于种族问题的最广泛的言论。
她将她的许多经济提案与黑人社区联系在一起，包括她的小企业税收抵免，她说“我还知道的一部分是，我们的年轻黑人，我们的黑人，就像任何群体一样...是我们整体经济的支柱。当他们在经济上做得更好时，我们都会做得更好。”
但是自从她参加竞选以来，在7月的一次类似的NABJ小组采访中，特朗普与记者激烈交锋错误地质疑哈里斯的种族。
特朗普在那次激烈的交流中说:“所以我认识她很长时间了，间接的，不是直接的，非常多，她一直是印度裔，她只是在促进印度裔。”“我不知道她是黑人，直到几年前，她碰巧变成了黑人，现在她想被称为黑人。所以我不知道，她是印度人还是黑人?”
哈里斯的母亲是印度人，父亲是牙买加人，都是美国移民，他没有直接回应特朗普的评论。在一个八月CNN采访在被要求评论特朗普围绕她的种族身份游说副总统的人身攻击后，哈里斯躲开了。
“还是老一套，老一套，”她告诉电视网。“请回答下一个问题。”
当被问及对同样的袭击有何评论时在ABC新闻上周的辩论中哈里斯没有谈论自己的种族身份，而是选择了一个更通用的答案。
“我认为这是一个悲剧，我们有一个想成为总统的人，他在职业生涯中一直试图利用种族来分裂美国人民，”她告诉ABC新闻的大卫·穆尔。
哈里斯对人们错误地质疑她的“黑人性”并不陌生。在2019年竞选总统期间，哈里斯面临的问题是，她是否足够黑，足以成为一名黑人候选人。
“我是黑人，我为自己是黑人而自豪，”哈里斯在当年2月的“早餐俱乐部”广播节目中说。“我生来就是黑人。我会死得很难看，我不会为任何人找借口，因为他们不理解。”
'It's a crying shame': Harris slams 'harmful' attacks on Haitian migrants in NABJ interview
Vice President Kamala Harris forcibly criticized what she called "harmful" attacks from former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, on Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, during a National Association of Black Journalists panel in Philadelphia on Tuesday where she delivered her most extensive comments on the controversy and on race more largely, a topic she has shied away from this cycle.
"It's a crying shame," Harris said when asked about Trump and Vance spreading the unsubstantiated claims thatHaitian migrants in the small city were stealing and eating neighbors' pets. "I mean, my heart breaks for this community."
A spokesperson for the city of Springfield told ABC News the claims are false, and that there have been "no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community."
Harris' comments on Tuesday marked her harshest rebuke of the unfounded claims about Springfield's Haitian migrants. Despite being asked multiple times by reporters about them, Harris had previously declined to comment.
She called the former president's comments about migrants in Springfield "exhausting" and "harmful."
"I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense and to say, 'You know what, let's turn the page on this,'" she said. "This is exhausting and it's harmful and it's hateful and grounded in some age-old stuff that we should not have the tolerance for."
The vice president said Trump's comments about the migrants in Springfield have lost him the public's trust.
"When you are bestowed with a microphone that is that big, there is a profound responsibility that comes with that, that is an extension of what should not be lost in this moment, this concept of the public trust to then understand what the public trust means," she said. "It means that you have been invested with trust to be responsible in the way you use your words, much less how you conduct yourself, and especially when you have been and then seek to be again, president of the United States of America."
She called on Trump's "hateful rhetoric" to stop.
"I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio, and it's got to stop," Harris told the panel. "And we've got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that, as usual, is designed to divide us as a country, is designed to have people pointing fingers at each other."
A rash of bomb threats have targeted schools, government buildings and elected officials' homes in Springfield, forcing evacuations and closures. Harris noted that some children in Springfield had to evacuate their schools because of bomb threats on what was picture day for them.
"Children. Children. A whole community put in fear," she said.
The panel comes just days after anapparent assassination attempton Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club. The White House said Harris had a "cordial" call with the former president on Tuesday.
"I checked on to see if he was OK, and I told him what I have said publicly, 'there is no place for political violence in our country,'" Harris said of the call. "I am in this election, in this race, for many reasons, including to fight for our democracy and in a democracy, there is no place for political violence. We can and should have healthy debates and discussion and disagreements, but not resort to violence to resolve those issues."
Asked if she felt Secret Service could keep her and her family safe, Harris said, "I do."
"But I mean, you can go back to Ohio, not everybody has Secret Service, and there are far too many people in our country right now who are not feeling safe."
The panel discussion also featured Harris's most extensive remarks on race since launching her presidential bid over the summer.
She tied many of her economic proposals to the Black community, including her small business tax credit, saying "part of what I also know is that our young Black men, our Black men, just like any group of people ... are really the backbone of our economy overall. And when they do better economically, we all do better."
But in the time since she got into the race, at a similar NABJ panel interview in July,Trump got into a fiery back-and-forth with reportersand falsely questioned Harris' race.
"So I've known her a long time, indirectly, not directly, very much, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage," Trump said during that heated exchange. "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. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?"
Harris -- the child of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, both immigrants to the United States -- has not directly responded to Trump's comments. In anAugust interview with CNN, after being asked to comment on the personal attacks Trump has lobbied at the vice president surrounding her racial identity, Harris dodged.
"Same old, tired playbook," she told the network. "Next question, please."
And when asked to comment on the same attacksduring ABC News' debate last week, instead of speaking about her own racial identity, Harris chose a more generic answer.
"I think it's a -- a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people," she told ABC News' David Muir.
Harris is not new to people falsely questioning her "Blackness." During her presidential run in 2019, Harris faced questions about whether she was Black enough to identify as a Black candidate.
"I'm Black, and I'm proud of being Black," Harris said on "The Breakfast Club" radio show in February of that year. "I was born Black. I will die Black, and I'm not going to make excuses for anybody because they don't understand."
