Former President Donald Trump criticized Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday as a “bum” responsible for the influx of migrants flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border during her tenure in the Biden administration.
Trump made the comments about Harris at the Turning Point USA Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida. This comes after Harris secured enough delegates for the Democratic Party’s top nomination after President Joe Biden dropped his re-election effort, although the party’s candidate will not formally be nominated until next month’s convention.
“Three weeks ago, she was a bum, a failed vice president and a failed administration with millions of people crossing. And she was the border czar, now they’re trying to say she never was,” Trump said, referring to recent claims by some media outlets that Harris was never the border czar, although several of the same outlets previously described her as such.
“They’re deleting it all over the place,” he added. “They want to take it [down] because we have the worst border in history. And three and a half years ago, we had the best border that we’ve ever had.”
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate 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 tapped Harris in 2021 to address the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America.
Biden said in March 2021 that Harris was leading the effort to coordinate with Mexico and other Northern Triangle nations — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — to address issues such as the surge of migrants at the southern border.
Earlier this week, the House passed a resolution condemning Harris as the border czar over her handling of the mass migration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. The resolution passed by a 220-196 vote, with at least six Democrats joining Republicans to condemn Harris.
During his remarks on Friday, Trump botched Harris’ name. He appeared to struggle to pronounce “Harris” and said there are multiple ways to pronounce her first name.
“By the way, there are numerous ways of saying her name … It doesn’t matter what I say. I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it or not. I couldn’t care less,” he said. “Some people think I mispronounce it on purpose, but actually I’ve heard it said about seven different ways. There are a lot of ways.”
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US Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention in Houston, Texas, on July 25, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Additionally, Trump said Harris must be defeated in a “land slade,” a mispronunciation of “landslide.”
The former president also again purported that Democrats are trying to steal elections and claimed to the Christians in the crowd that Americans will not have to vote at the end of his presidency because “it’ll be fixed” by then, a comment Democrats are criticizing as fascist and an attempt to refuse to leave office.
“If you want to save America, get your friends, get your family, get everyone you know and vote,” Trump said. “Vote early. Vote absentee. Vote on Election Day. I don’t care how, but you have to get out and vote. And again, Christians get out and vote just this time.”
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate 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 that he appointed three Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — and that he “will once again appoint rock solid conservative judges who will protect religious liberty and not let Marxist lunatics rewrite our constitution.”
The Harris campaign criticized Trump’s speech as “bitter” and “bizarre.”
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“Tonight, Donald Trump couldn’t pronounce words, insulted the faith of Jewish and Catholic Americans, lied about the election (again), lied about other stuff, bragged about repealing Roe, proposed cutting billions in education funding, announced he would appoint more extremist judges, revealed he planned to fill a second Trump term with more criminals like himself, attacked lawful voting, went on and on and on, and generally sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant – let alone be President of the United States,” Harris campaign spokesperson 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.”
