WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Former President Donald Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration and criminal justice Friday in his second speech since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, calling Harris a “bum” and a “failed vice president “.
“It was a bum three weeks ago. It was a bum. A failed vice president in a failed administration, with millions of people going through, and he was the border czar,” Trump told the Turning Point Action Believers Committee in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Much of the criticism of former President Harris was similar to his attacks on Biden. Trump said Harris mishandled the southern border, doesn’t like Jews and will nominate “Marxists” to the Supreme Court to deprive Americans of their religious freedom. (The vice president’s husband, second lord Doug Emhoff, is the first Jewish spouse of a vice president and has taken a prominent role in the fight against anti-Semitism.)
These attacks were in line with Republicans’ general unsupported claims that Democrats would impose socialist or Marxist policies if elected.
The GOP attacked Harris’ record as the Biden administration’s “border czar,” but the White House pushed back, saying Harris’ role was to work with Central American nations to address the root causes of the migration, not to solve the crisis at the southern border.
Trump also tried to link Harris to San Francisco, a city where he previously served as district attorney, telling attendees that if Harris is elected, “terrorists will appoint hundreds of far-left judges to forcefully impose the liberal values of San Francisco mad at Americans all over the country.”
The former president also rallied religious voters to return to the polls in higher numbers this year than ever before, saying: “You have tremendous power, you just don’t know it. You have to use that power. Christians are a group that is known not to vote much. You should at least get out this election. Get us in that beautiful White House.”
Calling them “my beautiful Christians,” Trump added: “Go out and vote. Just this once. You won’t have to do it again. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.”
Asked for clarification on Trump’s comments, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign told NBC News, “President Trump was talking about the importance of faith, uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to to the divisive political environment that has sown so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt.”
In a statement after Trump’s speech, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign said that during his speech, “Trump could not get his words out” and “insulted the faith of American Jews and Catholics.” The spokesman added that Trump “sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit next to in a restaurant — let alone the president of the United States.”
Friday’s event was the first time Trump’s ear cuff appeared to have been completely removed since he was the victim of an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania nearly two weeks ago.
The former president also pointed out the lack of a bandage, telling the crowd: “I think you can see that I’m recovering well and in fact I just took the last bandage off my ear.”
Trump added that he “took a bullet for democracy.”
