Screen shot/Donald Trump Jr. tweet

The slam appeared Thursday night shortly after the Democratic presidential debate, where Harris had powerfully raised her own experiences being bused as a child in California to battle school desegregation The attack appeared to be launched by a self-described “black activist” identifying himself as “Ali Alexander” on an unverified Twitter account. He claimed in a video and tweet that Harris cannot represent the black experience in America because she has “no ancestors who suffered American Slavery, the Civil War, nor Jim Crow.” Alexander is actually a far-right political operative and conspiracy theorist Ali Akbar, or Ali Abdul Razaq Akbar, whom Politico profiled last year as an “increasingly prominent pro-Trump supporter.” On the eve of the 2016 election, Robert Mercer donated $60,000 to a PAC that Alexander advises, Politico reported. Akbar, posing as Alexander, boasted that his tweets “went viral.” In fact, his message was nearly instantaneously picked up word for word and disseminated by several Twitter accounts that have been identified as bots, BuzzFeed reported. Social media researcher Caroline Orr pointed out that the original tweet also drew in other attacks falsely claiming Harris wasn’t born in the U.S.

A lot of suspect accounts are pushing the “Kamala Harris is not Black” narrative tonight. It’s everywhere and it has all the signs of being a coordinated/artificial operation. #DemDebate2pic.twitter.com/DTeB2qWJnm — Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) June 28, 2019

Yup. The troll farms are fired up and active. — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 28, 2019

These claims about Harris echo the right-wing lie against Obama — pitched repeatedly by Trump — that the first black U.S. president was born in Africa and had no legal right to be an American president. Similarly, Alexander is saying Harris has no right to represent black people in the U.S. because her father was foreign-born. Harris has experienced similar attacks questioning her race, her racial experiences and her citizenship. In an interview early this year, Harris said: “This is the same thing they did to Barack, this is not new to us.” She added that “powerful voices” are “trying to sow hate and division among us. We need to recognize when we’re being played.” Harris aide Lily Adams ripped Donald Trump Jr.’s retweet of Alexander’s attack to The New York Times on Friday. “This is the same type of racist attack his father used to attack Barack Obama,” she said. “It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.” Many Twitter users defended Harris and raised suspicions that this latest attack is a taste of coming election manipulation aided again by Russians and bots.

She was black when they were bussing her. — Jesus Tortilla (@JesusTortilla) June 28, 2019

Well I’m African American and when I talk to my Jamaican American brothers and sisters we all say Black. Because as Black Americans the racists don’t stop to ask distinction. So leave my sister alone racists! SMDH 😡 — 👄Jennifer👄 (@happywife669) June 28, 2019

Too black.

Not black enough.

Yeah, we've heard this before. — Dr Penny Dunster 🌊 (@THP1640) June 28, 2019

Funny, last I was there there were plenty of "blacks" living in Jamaica. — Cookie Vargas (@MsCCookieVargas) June 28, 2019

Suppressing the African-American voter turnout seems to be a core GOP strategy. This seems to be a be a part of this strategy. Attempts to dampen the enthusiasm black voters may have on Ms Harris. — MaKin (@KiarKini) June 28, 2019

Now that we know what's happening it's become clear what Trump's allies the Russians did in 2016. — Tedderman (@Tedderman1) June 28, 2019

Moscow is busy... — JimCarlson💙 (@darts89119) June 28, 2019

"Russia, if you're listening," we see you. — Kelvin (@Troubeerdourks) June 28, 2019

Donny jr retweeted one of them, so he is in the bot network... — Viva (@vivapdx) June 28, 2019

Consider it as a positive sign. Harris is starting to scare some folks. — Larry Zyontz (@lzyontz) June 28, 2019

Next, they are going to claim #Harris2020 was born in Norway. pic.twitter.com/oisQ9JNHq4 — Elastigirl Persists 🌊🇺🇲 (@ElastigirlVotes) June 28, 2019