Asked about cognitive ability, Trump brings up Harris' bar-exam results: What to know

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference Wednesday, falsely claimed that presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris failed to pass the California bar exam.

The falsity was said during an exchange when Semafor reporter Kaida Goba asked if the former president would step down if he felt he was unable to continue in the presidency if elected. Trump responded by challenging Harris, whom he is 19 years older than, to a cognitive test.

"She failed her bar exam. She did not pass her bar exam, so maybe she would not pass the cognitive test," Trump said. "She did not pass her bar exam, and she did not think she would pass it, and she did not think she would ever pass it, and I don't know what happened."

Harris has said that she did not pass the exam on her first attempt, but she later passed and was admitted to the California Bar the year after she finished law school.

Trump's claim came amongst a slew of derogatory attacks at the Vice President during the interview, including questioning the authenticity of her 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," Trump said.

The former president also claimed that Harris was a “DEI” candidate and called moderator Rachel Scott of ABC News rude for repeating the candidate's previous derogatory statements about the Black community.

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Trump's interview was scheduled to last for an hour but was ended in less than 35 minutes with Scott closing the interview by saying, "we have to leave it there, by the Trump team."

The claim about Harris' bar-exam performance first appeared during the 2020 confirmation hearings of Associate Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and is true but lacks context. Harris passed the bar exam and worked as a prosecutor in California before becoming the Attorney General in the state.

Harris passed difficult exam

The bar exam is the qualifying examination for lawyers to receive a license to practice law in a given state.

California has a notoriously difficult bar exam. In 1985, the Los Angeles Times wrote that its pass rate "has generally hovered around 50%."

Harris graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989.

Harris told the New York Times in 2016 that she failed the exam on her first attempt and consoled a recent law graduate who also failed the exam saying, "I told her, it's not a measure of your capacity."

The California Bar shows that Harris was admitted in 1990 and allowed her license to become inactive in February 2021.

In 2020, when the claim first appeared, the pass rate for "first timers" taking the test was just over 67%. Less than 45% of "first timers" that took the test in February passed, according to a report from the California Bar.

Charleston School of Law Dean Larry Cunningham told USA TODAY in 2020 that the exam has been criticized as "unrealistic" and insufficient to assess some important legal skills, like interviewing clients and arguing in court.

"These criticisms also explain why many law graduates who struggle to pass this high-stakes exam on the first attempt go on to become excellent lawyers and judges," he wrote.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump claims Harris, former prosecutor, did not pass bar exam, she did