CNN anchor Jim Acosta scolded Corey Lewandowski, a top aide for former Republican President Donald Trump, for deliberately mispronouncing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris's name.
Lewandowski is a right-wing political operative who was the first campaign manager for former Republican President Donald Trump. He became a senior advisor as a member of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
Lewandowski appeared on CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta and bungled the pronunciation of Harris's first name, a purposeful sign of disrespect by pro-Trump conservatives in which the emphasis is incorrectly placed on the second syllable in Kamala's name instead of on the first.
During Wednesday's CNN appearance, Lewandowski commented on how Trump "took a bullet" for the country, slammed Democratic President Joe Biden's administration, and invoked Harris's name by pronouncing it, “Ka-MA-luh.”
Acosta was not amused and abruptly asked Lewandowski:
“Corey, you’ve been in this business a long time. I think you’re a mature grown-up."
"It’s Kamala Harris. Can you say Kamala? Or you cannot say Kamala? What’s going on there?”
Lewandowski dismissed the request and continued railing into the Biden administration's take on immigration policies.
Seeing the interview was going nowhere fast, Acosta cut off the interview:
“All right, well, Corey, I appreciate you coming on. Maybe we’ll have you back. Thanks for your time.”
You can watch the clip here.
The audience was here for the schooling of the woefully ignorant conservative.
Conservatives have continued botching the pronunciation of Harris's first name ever since Trump mispronounced it at least twice during a White House press conference after Biden announced Harris as his running mate in August 2020.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson was miffed when a guest on his show corrected his pronunciation of the California Senator’s name, causing him to fire back:
"So I’m disrespecting her by mispronouncing her name unintentionally. So it begins, you’re not allowed to criticize Kuh-MAH-la Harris, or CA-muh-la, or whatever.”
Harris has endeavored to familiarize Americans with the correct pronunciation of her name during appearances and in a 2016 campaign video featuring children explaining the correct way to say Kamala.
You can watch the video here.
In the preface of her 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold, the Vice President explained Kamala is pronounced “‘comma-la,’ like the punctuation mark," adding:
"It means ‘lotus flower,’ which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.”
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