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,” Mr Obama said, praising Ms Harris, who is the first woman and first Indian-American to be elected attorney-general of California.
“She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney-general in the country — Kamala Harris is here,” Mr 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,” Mr 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 Mr Obama meant no insult, but in singling out Ms Harris for her looks, Mr Obama joins a long list of public figures who just can’t seem to let an attractive woman’s looks go without comment.