Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory A. Booker of New Jersey on Saturday defended fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala D. Harris, as Ms. Warren condemned online attacks against the California senator as “racist and ugly” and Mr. Booker said Ms. Harris had nothing “to prove.”
“The attacks against @KamalaHarris are racist and ugly. We all have an obligation to speak out and say so. And it’s within the power and obligation of tech companies to stop these vile lies dead in their tracks,” Ms. Warren said on Twitter.
Ms. Warren did not cite any examples, but her tweet came as her colleague faced scrutiny on social media after identifying as “the only black person” participating in a televised Democratic presidential candidate debate Thursday.
“Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves,” right-wing media personality Ali Alexander tweeted during the debate. “She’s not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That’s fine. She’s not an American Black. Period.”
Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s eldest son, shared Mr. Alexander’s tweet to his millions of Twitter followers prior to deleting it, and researchers have since reported that similar posts questioning the senator’s race were amplified on social media by automated accounts, or bots.
Mr. Booker of New Jersey, who is also black and went on the debate stage Wednesday night, shared an article on social media later Saturday about the tweets and tweeted that Ms. Harris “doesn’t have [expletive] to prove.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately return a request for comment. In a statement earlier this week, a campaign spokesperson compared the presidential son’s since-deleted tweet to his father’s past “birtherism” claims.
“This is the same type of racist attacks his father used to attack Barack Obama. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now,” the spokesperson said.
Ms. Warren and Ms. Harris are among a crowded pool of more than two dozen candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to compete against the president in 2020 general election. Ms. Warren has made breaking-up “big tech” a major part of her presidential platform, while Ms. Harris, on her part, recently raised concerns about Facebook and called for the social networking giant to face regulation.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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