Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday clapped back at her Republican opponent’s description of the United States as a “dumping ground” for criminals after Donald Trump claimed the US is “like a garbage can for the world” in remarks the previous day.
Speaking to reporters in Houston, where she is set to appear alongside Beyonce at a rally Friday evening, Harris was asked to respond to the former president’s incendiary remarks at a Las Vegas event.
Harris called the racist tirade “another example of how he really belittles our country.”
“This is someone who is a former president of the United States who has a bully pulpit, and this is how he uses it, to tell the rest of the world that somehow the United States of America … is trash,” she said.
Trump has frequently claimed, without evidence, that non-white immigrants who travel to the US and claim asylum along the US-Mexico border are being “sent” to the country after being released from jails and mental institutions.
Harris said the ex-president’s rhetoric is beneath the office he seeks to reclaim in this year’s election.
“I think again, the President of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” she said.
“America deserves better,” she added.
Since announcing his third campaign for the presidency in late 2022, Trump has often described the country he wants to lead as “a nation in decline” or “a third-world country,” citing the fact that he is no longer the nation’s chief executive as the reason for such dire conditions.
He has also threatened to weaponize the federal government against prominent Democrats, who he describes as “the enemy within.”
Multiple former top officials who served in his administration have described him as “fascist,” while only a small fraction of the 40 people who served in his cabinet are endorsing his bid for a second term in the White House.