Neil Vigdor
Mr. Trump, who made the comments during a June debate against President Biden, drew criticism for suggesting certain types of jobs apply to Black .
When he was asked what he meant by the term “Black job” on Wednesday during a combative appearance at a conference of Black journalists in Chicago, Mr. Trump said: “A Black job is anybody who has a job.”
In that same appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, Mr. Trump questioned the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris, his likely opponent in the November election. He said that Ms. Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian heritage, “became a Black person” only recently and suggested that it was for political gain, comments that were widely condemned.
As Ms. Biles, who is Black, was closing in on another Olympic triumph this week, Democrats called attention to remarks that Mr. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, Republican of Ohio, had once made her after she withdrew from events in the previous Olympics because of a mental health issue.
Mr. Vance, during an appearance on Fox News in 2021, questioned why Ms. Biles was receiving acclaim for stepping away from the competition at the Tokyo games.
“I think it reflects pretty poorly on our sort of therapeutic society that we try to praise , not for moments of strength, not for moments of heroism, but for their weakest moments,” Mr. Vance, who was running for the Senate, said at the time.
Democratic operatives were eager to resurface the remarks now that both Mr. Vance and Ms. Biles are back in the spotlight. Aida Ross, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said on Thursday that Mr. Vance was in “no position to be talking anyone’s else’s ‘weakest moments.’”
Neil Vigdor covers for The Times, focusing on voting rights issues and election disinformation.
