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‘I will say Kamala’s name any way that I want to’: CNN panel ERUPTS over pronunciation, Nancy Mace fights back

August 16, 2024 | | Print Article

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace ignited a CNN panel when she announced she would pronounce Vice President Kamala Harris’s name “any way that I want to.”

The South Carolina Republican triggered the panel on “CNN NewsNight” Thursday when she mispronounced the vice president’s name, eventually calling out Vanderbilt University professor Michael Eric Dyson for making it about racism.

“You had it right. You almost got it,” Democratic strategist Keith Boykin jumped in to tell Mace as she repeated “Kamala” in an attempt to get the pronunciation correct.

“I will say Kamala’s name any way that I want to,” Mace quipped as she sought to get back to her point.

But the panel was already heated up.

“But you mispronounced her, and you also misjudged her,” Dyson pointed out, prompting Mace to reply, “I just did and I’ll do it again.”

“If I purposely mispronounced your name, that would not be appropriate,” Boykin, the co-founder of the National Black Justice Coalition, told Mace.

“You’re normalizing that kind of viciousness, ma’am. You’re disrespecting the woman,” Dyson added.

The professor couldn’t let the issue go and brought it up again later in the segment.

“This congresswoman is a wonderful human being,” he said of Mace, sitting to his right. “But when you disrespect Kamala Harris by saying you will call her whatever you want, I know you don’t intend it to be that way, that’s the history and legacy of white disregard for the humanity of black people.”

“Oh, so now you’re calling me a racist. That is B.S. That is complete B.S.,” Mace shot back.

“I just said you weren’t a racist. No. You don’t have to intend racism to accomplish it,” Dyson replied. “Your disrespect of Kamala Harris is part and parcel of a tradition.”

Mace argued that it was “offensive” and “disgusting” to imply she was racist.

“What is disgusting is your disrespect of her,” Dyson responded.

“You know what, you know what’s disgusting to women is her disrespect of women,” Mace said. “She doesn’t know what a woman is.”

“White women don’t have the ability to tell black women who paid the price of blood to make this country what it is to tell them they’re not real women,” Dyson shot back.

“Pronounce her name right,” he demanded as Mace complied by saying it incorrectly again.

“Kamala! Kamala!” the panelists shouted.

“It’s Kamala! You’re doing this on purpose, congresswoman!” exclaimed Boykin, a former Clinton White House aide.

“You’re a white woman disrespecting a black woman,” Dyson accused.

Mace took to social media the next morning with a snarky post about her battle on CNN.

“Much needed caffeine after taking on the Radical Left last night on @CNN,” she wrote.

Not surprisingly, the left torched the lawmaker on X but Mace found plenty who applauded her stand.

Frieda Powers
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