As authorities investigate a second assassination attempt on Harris on Sunday, critics on Monday resurrected old television footage accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of joking about killing Donald Trump or members of his Cabinet.
“President Trump, [Vice President] Mike Pence or [Attorney General] “Who would be Jeff Sessions?” TV host Ellen DeGeneres asked Harris in an April 2018 interview.
Harris deadpanned, “Do any of us have to survive?” before bursting into laughter.
The “Ellen DeGeneres” audience cheered and applauded as Harris continued to laugh along with DeGeneres.
Harris, now 59, was a U.S. senator representing California at the time.
The Trump campaign reposted the video ahead of the 2020 presidential election, when Harris was briefly running against former President Trump.
“Kamala Harris jokes about killing President Trump and Mike Pence.” Posted on August 13, 2020 It was then spread on Twitter (now X) and re-circulated by Fox News host Sean Hannity a few months later.
The center-right X account has again been spreading the video following a second assassination attempt on Sunday by 58-year-old gunman Ryan Wesley Routh on President Trump, 78.
“Kamala Harris openly joked about assassinating President Trump in 2018 and was cheered by an audience of clapping, lobotomized seals,” said conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. Post to X It had been viewed nearly 4 million times on Sunday. “Are you wondering how you got here?”
Tom Fitton, president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, said: Added“It wasn't funny then, and it's not funny now.”
Andrew Follett, a senior analyst at Club 4 Growth, linked to a 2024 article by Ruth titled X, saying Trump “Democracy“Order received,” he wrote.
The account had already been sharing the video intermittently since the first assassination attempt, in which 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a bullet into Trump's ear.
Following the shooting and near-shooting at a rally at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Governor Harris issued a statement condemning the violence.
“We have received reports of shots fired near former President Trump and his property in Florida and are glad he is safe,” her VP X account said. Posts Sunday. “Violence has no place in America.”
Right-wing X-account “End Wokeness” hit back in a tweet that has been viewed more than a million times, saying: “You called him a threat to democracy and a dictator from day one. This is your fault.”
Andy Ngo, editor-in-chief of the Post Millennial, added: “Why are you celebrating that Trump is 'safe' when you have repeatedly called him an existential threat to democracy and a Hitler-like figure?”
“Would you hate it if someone like that was killed?”
Harris Posted July 14: “As @POTUS said, we must work towards unity as Americans. Assassination attempts have no place in our country or anywhere.”
“Doug and I are praying for the family of the victim who was senselessly murdered yesterday and wishing a speedy recovery to those injured.”
Trump Written “The rhetoric and lies exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and partisan ABC debate, and especially the ridiculous lawsuits designed to damage Joe and Kamala's political opponent ME, have taken our politics to a whole new level of hate, abuse and distrust,” he wrote on his Truth Social and X accounts on Monday afternoon.
Routh was indicted on a firearms possession charge in federal court in Florida on Monday and was later taken into custody on the highway.
Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper seconds after he began firing into the crowd at a Trump rally.
Harris' campaign did not immediately respond to The Washington Post's request for comment about her 2018 appearance on “Ellen.”
