Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is tearing into President Donald Trump calling him a “divider” and “not a commander-in-chief.”
During an interview on CNN Monday evening, Harris tore into Trump for his military threat, as she said, “I think that Donald Trump has combined the worst of George Wallace with Richard Nixon.”
“You know, when he talks about ‘end it now’ and then ‘dominate the streets,’ you know, dominate, it literally — one iteration of dominate is about supremacy and that’s what Donald Trump is about,” she added.
She continued:
“Let’s be clear about it, he has spent full time from the time he ran for president throughout his term in office, full time trying to sow hate and division among the American people. And what he is right now doing in terms of invoking the American military, threatening the American people with the American military, the use of the American military against its own people.”
“He is not a commander in chief. He is a divider,” Harris added. “He is clearly scared. And — and he cannot meet this moment that he has partly created because of his inability to understand the pain and the suffering.”
“Right now, America is raw. Her wounds are exposed.”
On Monday in the Rose Garden, Trump vowed that if state and local governments did not take action amid unrest over George Floyd’s death to deploy the U.S. military to quell the violence, as IJR reported.
“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” the president said.
Trump also said, “We’re going to clamp down very, very strong. The word is ‘dominate.’ If you don’t dominate your city and your state, they’re gonna walk away with you. And we’re doing it in Washington, in DC, we’re going to do something that people haven’t seen before … But we’re going to have total domination.”
Listen to Harris’ remarks below:
Let's be clear: when Trump says 'dominate' he's talking about supremacy. pic.twitter.com/CfmKL2aZhE
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 2, 2020
Harris also spoke on Trump’s threat to use military during an MSNBC interview on Monday evening.
“To be clear, these are not the words of a president, these are the words of a dictator,” Harris said in response.
“He talked about domination … Domination is just another way of saying supremacy. That is part of the theme of who Donald Trump is.”
She also suggested, “What he is doing is just fanning the flame of hurt and pain.”
See Harris’ comments below:
Harris expressed her disapproval of Trump on Twitter as well.
Donald Trump just tear-gassed peaceful protesters for a photo op. https://t.co/nRzF0V4Kg5
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020
These are not the words of a president. They are the words of a dictator.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020
As IJR reported, Trump would need to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military. With this act, the president has authority to send troops. It has been used several times in U.S. history and last used in 1992.
