A CNN panel devolved into a shouting match after guests were triggered over Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) pronunciation of Kamala Harris’ name.
The meltdown unfolded Thursday as Rep. Mace pronounced Harris’ first name two different ways, prompting CNN Newsnight panelists to accuse her of racism, before she declared she would say Kamala “any way that I want to.”
“You had it right, you almost got it,” former Clinton White House aide Keith Boykin told her.
“I will say Kamala’s name any way that I want to,” Mace defiantly insisted.
The most unhinged, sexist, left-winged radicals hyperfixated about how I pronounce Kamala’s name last night.
Meanwhile, Kamala’s still hiding from the media.
Embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/mWBxLFVCkJ
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) August 16, 2024
“No,” shouted CNN commentator Michael Eric Dyson. “But you mispronounced her, and you also misjudged her.”
“I just did and I’ll do it again,” Mace said.
Boykin proceeded to claim it wouldn’t be appropriate if he said Mace’s name incorrectly, while Dyson argued she was “normalizing” a “disrespect” of Harris.
“It’s Kamala, you’re doing this on purpose, congresswoman,” Boykin told her, with Dyson adding she was committing a cardinal sin as “a white woman disrespecting a Black woman.”
The discussion came as former President Donald Trump has previously said he doesn’t care if he mispronounces Harris’ name.
“By the way, there are numerous ways of saying her name, they were explaining to me, ‘you can say Kamala, you can say Kamala’, I said, ‘don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter what I say. I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it’,” Trump said at a rally last month. “Some people think I mispronounce it on purpose, but actually, I’ve heard it said about seven different ways.”
MSNBC has previously claimed the mispronunciation of Harris’ name was part of a coordinated “hate campaign” on the part of Republicans.
Mika Says Mispronouncing Kamala Harris’ Name Is Part of a Right-Wing ‘Hate Campaign’ pic.twitter.com/vn4RypubPA
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) July 22, 2024
Social media users have pointed out Joe Biden also mispronounces Harris’ name.
Three years after announcing Kamala Harris as his running mate, Biden is still pronouncing her name wrong pic.twitter.com/yS8eBvNY8j
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 23, 2023
This your boy? https://t.co/Ls3bNarpHS pic.twitter.com/YPva588dap
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) August 16, 2024
Joe Biden just mispronounced Kamala Harris’ name a couple minutes ago https://t.co/pUBYVJMePD
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) August 12, 2020
Watch a longer clip of the fiasco below:
CNN had a meltdown accusing Nancy Mace of being a racist white supremacist because she didn’t pronounce Kamala’s name right. pic.twitter.com/2JQPSwakjL
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 16, 2024