Vice President Kamala Harris decried former President Donald Trump as divisive and disrespectful in response to his recent attacks about her race, as she addressed a historically Black sorority event in Houston on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority’s Biennial Boule, Harris said: “The American people deserve better.”
“The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth,” Harris continued. “A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us. It is an essential source of our strength.”
Earlier in the day, Trump ridiculed Harris’ heritage as the first Black and Indian American vice president during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago. Trump falsely claimed Harris did not lean into her Black identity until it became politically advantageous to do so.
“She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. And now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know. Is she Indian or is she Black? I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t.”
ABC News’ Rachel Scott, who was one of the moderators of the interview, pointed out that Harris has always identified as Black and attended Howard University, a historically Black university. When asked if he felt that Harris was a “DEI hire,” as several of his fellow Republicans have said, Trump said, “I really don’t know. Could be.”
On Wednesday evening in Houston, Harris responded: “It was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better.”
Harris’ visit to Houston is part of her third trip to Texas in July. Harris was in Houston earlier last week for a briefing on the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl and to deliver a speech at the American Federal of Teachers’ national convention. Harris also visited Dallas earlier in the month to speak at the Alpha Kappa Alpha annual convention.
Harris will stay in Houston through Thursday to attend the service for U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, who died earlier this month. Harris will deliver a eulogy, along with other prominent national Democratic elected officials.
Harris plans to go on a battleground tour next week, visiting several cities in key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Nevada.
During her speech at the Sigma Gamma Rho event, Harris urged attendees to organize voters and bolster turnout as they did in 2020 when she ran with President Joe Biden.
“Election day is in 97 days, and in this moment once again, our nation is counting on you to energize, to organize and to mobilize,” Harris said. “Because when we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize, nations change. And when we vote, we make history.”
Harris previewed her policy priorities should she get elected president. She vowed to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. The two bills, which have remained stalled in Congress, would increase federal oversight of elections and codify expanded access to voter registration and the ballot.
Harris also addressed gun violence, promising to codify universal background checks, red flag laws and an “assault weapons ban.”
Harris blamed Trump for restrictive abortion laws currently in place across the South, including in Texas, saying he made this happen by appointing a conservative majority to the Supreme Court. She said she would sign into law legislation to “restore reproductive freedoms” that also respects individual religious beliefs.
“One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling her what to do,” Harris said. “We know faith and freedom can coexist.”
Harris cast a second Trump term as a threat to American democracy, saying that the former president planned to use law enforcement to round up protesters, use the Justice Department to go after political enemies and become dictator from day one.
“In this moment, we face a choice between two very different visions for our nation. One focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” Harris said. “We are working to build up, not tear down.”
“We are not going back,” Harris said. “We all here remember what those four years were like. And today, we were given yet another reminder.”
Harris started her Houston visit Wednesday at a political fundraiser for the Harris Victory Fund just before visiting with Sigma Gamma Rho.
The fundraising event was organized in four days, bringing in $2.5 million, according to a campaign official. The event’s target was $1 million. U.S. Reps. Al Green and Lizzie Fletcher and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo were in attendance. Sima Ladjevardian, chair of the National Women’s Business Council, introduced Harris. Ladjevardian ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw in 2020 and has organized fundraisers for the Biden-Harris campaign this cycle
Harris spoke briefly at the fundraiser, telling the audience of donors that “building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency." She warned that Trump represented a different, darker vision for the country, urging attendees: “we are not fighting against something. We are fighting for something.”
“We know how much is at stake,” Harris said.
Harris also alluded to her past as the California Attorney General and district attorney where she “took on perpetrators of all types.”
“I know Donald Trump’s type,” Harris said, alluding to his conviction last May of 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York court.
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