WASHINGTON — Donald Trump on Monday blasted Vice President Kamala Harris as “mean and stupid” in one of his first interviews with The Washington Post since President Biden decided not to run for a second term.
“There are only two words to describe Kamala Harris: cruel and stupid, a bad combination,” the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate said, a day after Biden dropped out of the race and urged Democrats to unite behind Vice President Harris as the party’s top contender in the Nov. 5 election.
Harris, 59, is now working frantically to rally Democratic support just days before online voting to formally decide who will succeed the 81-year-old Biden.
Ms Harris, a former prosecutor and California senator, made headlines as a sharp critic of Mr Biden during their last Democratic presidential primary, after he won and later chose her as his running mate.
At the time, the future vice president slammed Biden for previously opposing racial girls riding school buses and for making some women feel uncomfortable with his interactions with them.
“There was a little girl in California who was in the second class when their public schools were integrated and she rode the bus to school every day. And that little girl was me!” Harris told Biden during a 2019 debate, blasting his record on busing.
First lady Jill Biden was reportedly infuriated by the attack on her husband and called Harris a “fuck you” afterwards.
Several women have alleged that Biden subjected them to unwanted kissing or touching during the campaign. Harris says “I believe in them and I respect that they can tell their story and have the courage to do so,” she said at the time.
Harris began her political career as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011, a position that drew unease on the left, even as she later said she “oversaw 1,900 marijuana-related convictions.” Radio interview in 2019 She says she smoked marijuana while listening to 2Pac and Snoop Dogg in college.
An update on President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race:
After Biden selected Harris as his running mate in August 2020, the Trump campaign’s first ad labeled her a “fake.”
The former president has recently dubbed her “Kamala the Laugher,” referring to her frequent, often outburst-like laughter at events, and last year told TV personality Tucker Carlson that Kamala “speaks in rhymes,” referring to her “word ramblings” that are imprecise and roundabout.
If Harris wins the Democratic nomination, Republicans are expected to focus on her record as Biden’s “border secretary” over the past three years, after Biden tasked her in March 2021 with addressing the “root causes” of illegal immigration, which has in fact hit an all-time high.
