'Exhausting and harmful': Kamala Harris skewers Trump treatment of Haitian immigrants

Vice President Kamala Harris held an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday in Philadelphia in which she skewered former President Donald Trump's attacks on Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio.

In the wake of Trump's attacks, in which he made false claims about immigrants kidnapping and eating local residents' pets, the city has had to shut down schools multiple times due to bomb threats made against the facilities.

"It's a crying shame," said Harris. "I mean, my heart breaks for this community. There were elementary school children who — it was, it was school photo day. You remember what that's like? Going to school on picture day? Dressed up in their best. Got all ready. Knew what they were going to wear the night before."

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Students in Springfield were ultimately evacuated for four school days in the past week. So far, 33 threats have plagued the city as a whole.

"Children. Children," Harris repeated. "A whole community put in fear. And I'll say a couple of things about it. One, you know, I learned a long time ago in my career having a background as a prosecutor. When you have these positions, when you have that kind of microphone in front of you, you really ought to understand at a very deep level how much your words have meaning."

She said that as a prosecutor, she realized her words could determine a defendant's guilt or innocence, and she has always been conscious of this fact. She called a "profound responsibility" and an understanding of the "public trust."

"It means that you have been invested in trust to be reasonable in ways you use your words, much less how you conduct yourself. And especially when you have been and then seek to be again president of the United States of America. It's a crying shame, Literally," she said without mentioning Trump by name.

She then turned to the practical impact on the community of Springfield, noting how the threats have been stretching law enforcement resources, and putting everyone at risk beyond the Haitians who are meant as the target.

She then tied Trump's attacks on the Haitian immigrant community to past instances of racism from the former president.

"This is not new in terms of where it's coming from," she also pointed out. "Whether it is refusing to rent to people, rent to Black families, whether it is taking out a full page ad in The New York Times against five innocent Black and Latino teenagers, Central Park Five calling for their execution, whether it is referring to the first Black president of the United States with a lie. Birther lies?"

See the full comments in the video below or at the link here.

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