Former President Donald Trump on Friday criticized Vice President Kamala Harris during the Biden administration as a “slacker” who is responsible for the influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump made his comments about Harris at the Turning Point USA Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, after Harris secured enough delegates to become the Democratic Party’s top nominee following President Joe Biden’s decision to not seek reelection, though the party’s candidate will not be formally named until its convention next month.
“Three weeks ago, she was a useless, failed vice president, a failed administration that saw millions of people cross the border. And she was border secretary, and now they’re trying to say she was never,” Trump said, referring to recent claims by some media outlets that Harris was never border secretary, though some of the same media outlets had previously described Harris as border secretary.
“They’re taking it down all over the place,” he added. “They’re trying to take it away. [down] Because we have the worst border in history. And three and a half years ago, we had the best border in history.”
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Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at Turning Point Action’s “The Believers Summit” in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 26, 2024. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
President Biden appointed Harris in 2021 to address the root causes of mass migration from Latin America.
Biden said in March 2021 that Harris was leading efforts to work with Northern Triangle countries — Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — to address issues such as the surge of migrants at the southern border.
Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to censure Harris as border secretary over her handling of the mass migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border. The resolution passed by a vote of 220-196, with at least six Democrats joining Republicans in censuring Harris.
During his speech on Friday, Trump got Harris’ name wrong, appearing to struggle to pronounce “Harris” and saying there are multiple ways to pronounce her first name.
“By the way, there are lots of different ways to pronounce her name. It doesn’t matter what I say. I don’t care if I pronounce it wrong. I don’t care at all,” he said. “Some people think I’m pronouncing it wrong on purpose, but actually I’ve heard it said seven different ways. There are lots of different ways to say it.”
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US Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote address at the United Teachers Union’s 88th National Convention in Houston, Texas, on July 25, 2024. (Brendan Smiarowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump also said Harris must lose on a “land slade,” which is a mispronunciation of “landslide.”
The former president also claimed Democrats were trying to steal the election, and told Christians in the crowd that Americans didn’t need to vote because it would be “solved” by the end of his term, a move Democrats have criticized as fascistic and an attempt to refuse to leave office.
“If you want to save America, get all your friends, all your family, all you know and get to vote,” Trump said. “Vote early. Vote absentee. Vote on Election Day. I don’t care how, but you’ve got to get out and vote. And I say again, Christians, just this once, get out and vote.”
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at Turning Point Action’s “The Believers Summit” in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 26, 2024. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump also highlighted his nominations of three Supreme Court Justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — saying he would “reappoint staunch conservative justices who will protect religious freedom and not let Marxist fanatics rewrite the Constitution.”
Harris’ campaign criticized Trump’s speech as “harsh” and “bizarre.”
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“Tonight, Donald Trump couldn’t pronounce words, insulted the faith of Jewish and Catholic Americans, lied (again) about the election and other things, bragged about repealing Roe, proposed billions of dollars in cuts to the education budget, announced he would appoint more extremist judges, revealed his plans to create more criminals like him in a second term, attacked legitimate voting, went on and on, and was just generally not someone you’d want to sit next to in a restaurant, let alone become President of the United States,” Harris campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement.
“America can do better than the bitter, bizarre and backward-looking delusions of criminal Donald Trump,” Singer continued. “Vice President Kamala Harris offers a vision for America’s future focused on freedom, opportunity and security.”
