Donald Trump has questioned whether Kamala Harris has the “right” to run for the presidency, arguing the vice president picking up the Democratic Party‘s nomination, despite not winning its primary, is a “threat to democracy.”
The Republican presidential nominee made the comment in a post on his Truth Social website on Friday, where he branded Harris the “Weakest Presidential Candidate in History on Crime.”
Harris swiftly established herself as the Democrats‘ presumptive presidential nominee after President Biden announced he was dropping out of the race on July 21, giving her his endorsement. Biden decisively won the Democratic primary contest but pulled out after coming under intense pressure from within his own party, amidst increased concern over the 81-year-old’s age and mental agility.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said: “Kamala Harris is the Weakest Presidential Candidate in History on Crime. She’s allowed millions of people to pour through our Borders, many from prisons, mental institutions and, indeed, terrorists, coming in at levels never seen before.
“What gives her the right to run for President? She got no votes to Biden’s 14 Million. She failed in her previous attempt, was the first one out of 22 people to quit, never made it to Iowa, and now she’s a Presidential Candidate? This is a Threat to Democracy!”
Newsweek contacted representatives of the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump presidential campaigns for comment via email on Saturday outside of regular office hours.
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Harris did run against Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination but suspended her campaign in December 2019, before the Iowa caucus in early February 2020, citing fundraising difficulties. She was later selected by Biden to be his vice-presidential running mate in August 2020.
Speaking earlier this week at a news conference in Arizona by the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump described Harris replacing Biden as the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate as a “coup.”
He said: “It’s a very sad time for this country in many ways. We had a candidate — I was no fan of Joe Biden — but the way he was taken out was a coup.”
According to the most recent update from an analysis of recent polling by the election website FiveThirtyEight, published on Friday, Harris enjoyed a 3.7-point lead over Trump. The poll aggregator put Harris on 47.3 percent of the vote against 43.6 percent for her Republican rival, with independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in third at 4.7 percent.
Trump received a boost on Friday when Kennedy announced he was partially withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, urging his supporters to vote for the Republican nominee in battleground states. However, Kennedy did urge the public to still vote for him in solidly Republican or Democratic states, stating he could then become president “in a contingent election.”