A Donald Trump ally came under fire after she mocked Kamala Harris’ Indian heritage and said the White House would “smell like curry” if the Democratic nominee became the president.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday slammed Trump’s association with Laura Loomer after her post against Harris, calling it “repugnant”.
The remark also didn’t go well with some Trump supporters. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “This does not represent President Trump. This type of behaviour should not be tolerated ever.”
Loomer, a former congressional candidate, made the remarks on X on Sunday, days before the presidential debate in which Harris was widely seen to have outperformed her Republican rival.
If the vice president wins the November 5 election, she said, “The White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call centre and the American people will only be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of the call that nobody will understand.”
Loomer, 31, often seen as a right-wing conspiracy theorist, made the remark while commenting on a photo posted by Harris on National Grandparents Day in which the vice president talked about her grandparents from India.
Harris’ mother Shyamala Gopalan migrated to the US at the age of 19 to pursue higher studies. Her father Donald J Harris is from Jamaica.
White House press secretary Jean-Pierre called the comments “repugnant” when questioned about them during the daily briefing. “No leader should ever associate with someone who spreads this kind of ugliness. This kind of racist poison, that’s what this is,” Jean-Pierre said.
“Exactly the kind of hateful, decisive rhetoric that we should denounce. And should not be part of the fabric of this country. It doesn’t matter your political views, you should stand and condemn … these types of just repugnant, repugnant words,” she added.
Previously, Loomer has called the 9/11 attacks an “inside job,” which Jean-Pierre brought up Thursday in her rebuke of the former president Trump’s ally.
“No leader should be connected to that or spreading that,” she said. Several X users condemned Loomer’s remark as racist. “I’ve reported this to X for a clear violation on account of racism,” a user with the account name Lady Jane said. “Damn, that’s a really racist thing to say. That’s a bad look,” another user wrote.