Kamala Harris turned President Trump’s Twitter attacks into a fundraising drive after the pair clashed on social media over their respective criminal justice records.
The donor push from the California senator, 55, comes after she threatened to boycott the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center’s Second Step Presidential Justice Forum in protest of Trump receiving an award from the group. It also comes after she called on Twitter to kick the president off its platform for using his account to “target, harass, and attempt to out the whistleblower” who triggered an impeachment inquiry into him.
“My whole life, I’ve fought for justice and for the people — something Donald Trump knows nothing about. The only part of criminal justice he can claim credit for is the ‘criminal’ part,” Harris wrote on Saturday. “Trump can attack me on Twitter until he’s red in the face. But nothing will change the fact that he spent decades celebrating mass incarceration; pushing the death penalty for innocent Black Americans; rolling back police accountability measures; and putting people’s lives at risk with his racist behavior,” she added.
Trump, 73, blasted “badly failing presidential candidate” Harris on Saturday morning for her threat to skip the forum, boasting that he was able to sign the First Step Act into law, an achievement that “was unable to get done in past administrations.”
“This and best unemployment numbers EVER is more than Kamala will EVER be able to do for African Americans!” Trump tweeted.
Badly failing presidential candidate @KamalaHarris will not go to a very wonderful largely African American event today because yesterday I recieved a major award, at the same event, for being able to produce & sign into law major Criminal Justice Reform legislation, which will..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2019
….greatly help the African American community (and all other communities), and which was unable to get done in past administrations despite a tremendous desire for it. This and best unemployment numbers EVER is more than Kamala will EVER be able to do for African Americans!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2019
During his award ceremony on Friday, Trump described himself as a victim of injustice amid the impeachment investigation into allegations he pressured Ukraine to look into former Vice President Joe Biden. He ripped the probe as a “witch hunt,” claiming “we’re working to put an end for everybody to horrible injustice and the horrible practices that we’ve seen.”
“Justice, fairness, and due process are core tenets of our democracy,” he said. “In America, you’re innocent until proven guilty, and we don’t have investigations in search of that crime.”
Harris’ threat led to the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center being pulled as a sponsor for the presidential forum at Benedict College. The historically black institution is hosting other candidates like Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg in Columbia, South Carolina.
Harris sent Twitter a letter this month to have Trump booted from the platform. Twitter declined her request, saying his tweets about the whistleblower did not “violate our policies against abusive behavior, targeted harassment, or violence on the service.”
