Social Media Reacts To Nancy Mace's 'Embarrassing' Effort To Mispronounce 'Kamala' (2024)

People on social media are calling out “embarrassing” behavior by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who went out of her way to repeatedly mispronounce Vice President Kamala Harris’ name during an appearance on CNN.

On Thursday’s broadcast of “NewsNight With Abby Phillip,” Mace criticized Harris over several policy issues, and she accused the Democratic presidential nominee of not knowing “what a woman is.”

At one point in the discussion, fellow guest panelist Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of African American studies at Vanderbilt University, was evaluating the Democrat’s campaign strategy when Mace interjected to attack Harris’ record in the U.S. Senate and as vice president.

The Republican initially pronounced “Kamala” correctly, before she appeared to quickly change course and say her name with an emphasis on the second syllable instead of the first.

When other CNN panelists called out the mispronunciation, Mace snapped back with “I will say Kamala’s name any way that I want to.”

Dyson and another guest panelist, Keith Boykin — a former White House aide during Bill Clinton’s presidency — then chastised Mace for being inappropriate and disrespectful.

Dyson also charged that, even if it wasn’t her intent, Mace’s mispronunciation of Harris’ name was an example of “the history and legacy of white disregard for the humanity of Black people.”

“Oh, so now you’re calling me racist. That is BS. That is complete BS,” Mace responded.

“I just said you weren’t a racist,” Dyson replied, before the two engaged in a back-and-forth.

Mace had mispronounced Harris’ name at multiple points earlier in the segment as well, with her fellow panelists making various attempts to correct her.

Guest panelist Marc Lotter, who served as the director of communications for Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, apologized for mispronouncing the vice president’s name elsewhere in the show.

“I even studied how to say that, and I messed it up,” he said. “I understand, my apologies.”

The Republican presidential nominee told a conservative Christian group during a speech in Florida last month that he didn’t care that he mispronounces her name.

“[It] doesn’t matter what I say,” he said at the time, while also suggesting that he doesn’t say her name incorrectly on purpose.

“I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it or not. I couldn’t care less,” he continued.

People on X, formerly Twitter, were stunned by Mace’s apparent insistence on saying Harris’ name incorrectly on CNN.

“Nancy Mace is embarrassing herself because she refuses to condemn Trump’s racism and she refuses to pronounce ‘Kamala’ correctly,” one X user wrote.

Mace responded to some of the backlash, writing Friday on X that the “most unhinged, sexist, left-winged radicals hyperfixated about how I pronounce Kamala’s name last night.”

Check out some reactions to Mace’s CNN appearance below: