Georgia Sen. David Perdue, the state¡¯s senior senator, appeared to intentionally mispronounce fellow Sen. Kamala Harris¡¯ name during a rally for President Donald Trump on Friday, drawing a rebuke from the Democratic vice-presidential nominee¡¯s spokesperson, who denounced the remarks as ¡±incredibly racist.¡±
¡°Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don¡¯t know. Whatever,¡± Perdue, a Republican, said at a rally for Trump in Macon, Georgia.
Perdue, one of Trump¡¯s closest allies, and Harris have served together for years in the Senate.
¡°Well, that is incredibly racist,¡± tweeted Sabrina Singh, Harris¡¯ press secretary. ¡°Vote him out and vote for @ossoff.¡±
Her first name is pronounced ¡°KAH¡¯-mah-lah¡± - or, as she explains in her biography, ¡°¡®comma-la,¡¯ like the punctuation mark.¡±
Perdue is in a hotly contested race for re-election. His Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, tweeted out a video clip of the mangling of Harris¡¯ name, and said ¡°We are so much better than this.¡±
¡°Senator Perdue never would have done this to a male colleague. Or a white colleague. And everyone knows it,¡± Ossoff added in a later tweet.
Perdue campaign¡¯s spokesman, John Burke, said in a text message.¡°Senator Perdue simply mispronounced Senator Harris¡¯ name, and he didn¡¯t mean anything by it.¡±
¡°He was making an argument against the radical socialist agenda that she and her endorsed candidate Jon Ossoff are pushing,¡± Burke added.
Trump frequently attacks Harris ¡ª the first Black and Indian-American woman to be nominated to join a major party ticket ¡ª calling her a ¡°monster¡± and referring to her by her first name.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are among the top Republicans who have repeatedly mispronounced it. A few Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, have said it incorrectly, too.
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