'I know his type': Harris attacks Trump post racial identity jibe

Taking a jibe at Donald Trump a day after he questioned her racial identity, US Vice President Kamala Harris, said she has taken on "perpetrators of all kinds," during her previous roles as Attorney General, District Attorney and courtroom prosecutor.

Attacking the former President and her rival in the November presidential polls, Harris said she knows "Donald Trump's type" and has been dealing with people like him.

"As many of you know, before I was elected Vice President and before I was elected a United States Senator, I was an elected Attorney General and an elected District Attorney. And before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor," the Vice President said in the video.

"So, in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump's type. I know the type and I have been dealing with people like him," she added.

The presidential campaign in the US heated up after Trump on Wednesday, launched a strong personal attack on Kamala Harris's racial heritage, by claiming that she, after being of "Indian heritage" for years, "turned black" a few years ago

"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?" CNN quoted him as saying.

"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," he said. "I think somebody should look into that too," he added.

Kamala Harris is of Indian origin. Her mother is Indian and her father is Jamaican; both immigrated to the United States. She is the first woman of colour and the first Asian American vice president. If Harris wins the upcoming polls, she will become the first woman president of the country.

Following the former President's remarks, Kamala Harris has hit back at Donald Trump over the latter's remarks against her racial identity and said the American people "deserve better."

She asserted that today the country faces a choice between two different visions, and alleged that Trump and his campaign aim to take the country "backward."

"We are not going back. We all remember what those four years were like, and today we got yet another reminder. This afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, and it was the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect. Let me just say, the American people deserve better," Harris said at a fundraiser event in Houston.