Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan was criticized after a video obtained by TMZ showed him joking about "body-slamming" Vice President Kamala Harris at a promotional event for his new beer before veering into racism with a dig about Harris' Indian heritage.
Notably, Hogan mispronounced Harris's name by emphasizing the second syllable instead of the first. Harris, who has repeatedly clarified the correct pronunciation of her name, often suggests remembering it as "comma-la." The traditional pronunciation of the Indian name is closer to "com'la."
Speaking at an event in Medina, Ohio to promote his new Real American Beer, Hogan said:
"You want me to body slam somebody? You want me to body-slam Kamala Harris? I said, do you want me to body slam Kamala Harris?! You want me to drop the leg on Kamala?”
Harris's supporters have accused conservatives of leaning into racist tropes due to her Tamil Indian and Afro-Jamaican ancestry and Hogan was no exception:
“Is Kamala a chameleon? Is she Indian?"
He then raised his hand and said "How," employing a racist caricature often used to denigrate Indigenous peoples, before adding:
“I’m gonna get heat for that one, brother. That was not me, that was the beers talking."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Hogan's bizarre rant comes several weeks after former President Donald Trump—whom Hogan rallied for at last month's Republican National Convention—claimed Harris "happened to turn Black” and suggested that “all of a sudden, she made a turn” in her racial identity in remarks he made at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago.
Trump was asked if he agreed with Republicans who have labeled Harris as a "DEI hire." Trump, who previously supported the racist "birther" conspiracy theory claiming that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen, responded by casting doubts on Harris's heritage.
He said:
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went – she became a Black person. I think somebody should look into that too.”
Hogan was swiftly called out.
This isn't the first time Hogan has been accused of being racist.
In July 2015, the National Enquirer and Radar Online exposed a leaked sex tape from 2007, revealing a racist tirade by Hogan. In the recording, he expressed his disapproval of his daughter dating a Black man, repeatedly using the "n-word." Hogan also acknowledged being "a racist, to a point."
Last month, Hogan made headlines again when influencer Essence Jenai accused him of dropping her as a brand ambassador for Real American Beer after discovering she is Black. Jenai claimed she was initially hired on a week-long contract to promote the beverage, which involved attending parties and other promotional events.
However, the influencer alleged that she was let go after just one day, following her first meeting with Hogan, suggesting that her hiring had been handled through a booking agency. She said that after checking social media, she found out the promotional events continued without her and another Black woman, with three non-Black women taking over the work.
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