In her first live interview since announcing she was running for president, California Sen. Kamala Harris showed why she could be Donald Trump’s worst nightmare in 2020.
Harris, considered one of the top contenders to win the Democratic nomination, immediately tore into the president for keeping the government shut down while hundreds of thousands of Americans suffer without a paycheck.
“This Friday will be the second time that these federal workers are not receiving a paycheck,” she said. “I think it is absolutely the height of irresponsibility that this administration is holding them and the American public hostage over the president’s vanity project.”
Video:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Kamala Harris sounds like a president, while Trump whines about the State of the Union. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/39heEVnQ05
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) January 24, 2019
Sen. Harris said:
This Friday will be the second time that these federal workers are not receiving a paycheck, and I have personally heard the stories, we all have, of folks who are standing in food lines, people who are being threatened with eviction, people who are working around the clock without being paid, and those folks, they don’t want a wall. They want a paycheck. And I think it is absolutely the height of irresponsibility that this administration is holding them and the American public hostage over the president’s vanity project. We have to keep the government running, and we have to open the government back up. And there should not be any conditions on that.Â
Harris is standing up for the workers Trump has ignored
In 40 seconds, Sen. Harris showed more concern for struggling American workers than Donald Trump has throughout this entire government shutdown.
While Trump has repeatedly whined about his wall, the loneliness he feels at the White House during the shutdown, or how sad he is about the canceled State of the Union, hundreds of thousands of federal employees are struggling to stay above water. He has barely uttered a syllable about them.
On Wednesday, the California Democrat delivered the message that these workers need to hear – a message that a responsible president would be delivering at a time like this.
In the process, Sen. Kamala Harris showed that, while there is a wide slate of promising Democratic candidates on the horizon, she should be considered a top-tier candidate to take on Donald Trump.
Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
