United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday called Kamala Harris, who Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has chosen to be his running mate for the November election, “the meanest and the most horrible” member of the Senate, reported AFP. Harris is the first woman of colour in the role.

Trump said he was surprised by Biden’s choice. He added that Harris had failed to impress him when she was vying for the Democratic nomination in primaries. The American president claimed Harris was “disrespectful” in her attacks on Biden during the Democratic primary.

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The 55-year-old California senator ran against Biden in the Democratic presidential primaries. She dropped out of the presidential race in December. “I was more surprised than anything else because she did so poorly,” Trump told reporters at the White House. The president also tweeted a video compiled by “Trump War Room” in which Harris is called phony.

Harris is the first African American as well as Asian American woman to run for vice president at a time when the country has witnessed huge protests against racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

Her parents were Jamaican and Indian immigrants. She is the first South Asian American to become a senator, the first African American woman who was elected the district attorney of San Francisco, and the first Asian American and African American woman attorney general of California.

During the first presidential debate, Harris had attacked Biden about his civil rights record, and especially his fond memories of working with leaders who had supported racial segregation. However, she has supported him openly following that. In June, she had said on a television show, “ Honestly, let me just tell you something: I will do everything in my power, wherever I am, to help Joe Biden win.”