Washington DC - Former Vice President Kamala Harris slammed what she called a "cover up" at the White House on Friday, after President Donald Trump shared a racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama and later deleted it.

Trump shared a social media post with a video depicting the Obamas as monkeys, a racist trope that caused widespread outrage.

The White House initially rejected "fake outrage" over the video shared on Trump's Truth Social account late Thursday night, only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member.

Harris rejected that explanation.

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"No one believes this cover up from the White House, especially since they originally defended the post. We are all clear-eyed about who Donald Trump is and what he believes," said Harris, who lost to Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

The video, uploaded late Thursday amid a flurry of other posts, repeated false allegations that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump.

Near the end of the one-minute-long clip promoting conspiracies about Trump's loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Friday, Trump stood by the thrust of the video's claims about election fraud, but said he had not seen the racist clip.

"I just looked at the first part... and I didn't see the whole thing," Trump said, adding that he "gave it" to staffers to post and they also didn't watch the full video.

"I didn't make a mistake," the president said when asked if he would apologize for the post.

Asked if he condemns the racist imagery in the video, Trump replied: "Of course I do."