Sen. Kamala Harris ripped President Trump Tuesday for politically assailing former Vice President Joe Biden during the president’s recent trip to Japan.
“The president of the United States when speaking has a profound amount of authority and power, and must then use the microphone before her in a responsible way,” the junior California senator and Democratic presidential hopeful said during an MSNBC town hall in Spartanburg, S.C.
“The idea that this president on foreign soil attacked the previous vice president of the United States, I don’t care what the differences on policy issues, I don’t care what the differences in terms of party affiliation, it is wrong, it is contrary to our values, and it is contrary to the best interests of our country and the integrity of our country,” she said.
Trump backed North Korean propaganda calling Biden “reckless” and “senseless” during a Monday press conference in Tokyo.
“Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low IQ individual. He probably is, based on his record. I think I agree with him on that,” Trump said.
During the televised town hall event Tuesday, a South Carolina voter asked Harris, 54, about the prospect of Trump’s forcible removal from office after the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia investigation. The lawmaker told the audience she has “advocated for us going through the process toward impeachment and seeing that through,” but said the Senate “in its current configuration” would not vote to oust the president from the White House.
Harris instead praised Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., who last week became the first congressional Republican to call for Trump’s impeachment.
“What he has done is what we need more people in the United States Congress to do, which is to put country before party,” she said.
Harris also referred to the reproductive rights plan she unveiled earlier Tuesday after a flurry of states introduced a range of anti-abortion measures. The 2020 hopeful’s proposal entails implementing a “preclearance” requirement similar to the Voting Rights Act, where jurisdictions with a history of trying to undermine Roe v. Wade would require approval from her hypothetical Justice Department before rolling out any new abortion law or practice. The Voting Rights Act’s preclearance model has been appealed to the Supreme Court.
“But the basis of the challenge was to say don’t, don’t base your evaluation of the state’s history based on what happened 50 years ago. It needs to be more current. What I am putting in place and will put in place is it will be based on that state’s history over the last 25 years,” Harris said.
The senator is on a two-day swing through South Carolina, a crucial early-voting state where she is tracking well according to early polls, before heading to events in her home state this weekend.
