Washington: US President Barack Obama has praised Indian-American Kamala Harris for her brilliance and also described her as the “best-looking” attorney general in the United States, a comment that has created a stir.
“She is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake,” Obama said praising Harris, who is the first women and first Indian-American to be elected as the Attorney-General of California.
“She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country — Kamala Harris is here,” Obama said amidst applause. “It’s true. Come on,” he said amidst laughter. “She is a great friend and has just been a great supporter for many, many years,” Obama said at a fund raising event in California, on Thursday.
Daughter of an Indian mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer specialist who emigrated from Chennai to the United States in 1960 and a Jamaican-American father, Harris, 48, is the first female African-American and Asian-American attorney general in California, as well as the first ethnic Indian-American attorney general in the United States.
According to Politico, certainly, Obama meant no insult, but in singling out Harris for her looks, Obama joins a long list of public figures who just can’t seem to let an attractive woman’s looks go without comment. In 2011, FOX News Chief Roger Ailes told the Associated Press that he hired Sarah Palin because “she was hot and got ratings,” Politico reported. Last year, Republican attorney general candidate David Freed said Democratic opponent Kathleen Kane’s strengths were that she’s “pretty and has a lot of money,” according to Pennsylvania’s Daily Review. (PTI)
